The DPI Dilemma

Have you ever noticed viewing an image on your monitor versus a print of the same image is vastly different? This is because monitors are rendering images and content at 72dpi which is a universal standard. On the other hand, commercial printers are typically set by default to print 300dpi – what is dpi? DPI is the amount of ink dots per inch; 300 dots per inch is the required standard for printed material. Images should also be placed at 100% size in your final document. This gets tricky if you don’t have image manipulation software like Photoshop.

If you already have in mind the final size that you will be printing, then it is highly recommended to create your print file to that size, for example: you want to frame a 12″x18″ image, set up your working space in Photoshop to 12″x18″ at 300dpi, using color space sRGB. Import your image into your document, make your necessary color adjustments, changes/effects etc., scale and resize as needed, save your file, and you’re ready to place your order.