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Resolution and Printing

davidjones8418davidjones8418 Posts: 167
in Technical Help (nuts n bolts)

I want to print some of my renders. Not large prints. A few inches either way. Print res is 300 dpi.

Does anyone have experience with this?

What I chiefly want to know is whether to configure the render for 300 dpi immediately (to meet the final dimensions of the image) or aim higher and reduce the res after. Is there anything to be gained by rendering in higher detail and then reducing it, or is this worse?

 

Comments

  • Catherine3678abCatherine3678ab Posts: 8,335

    AFAIK there is absolutely no point in trying to render higher than 300 dpi. Our eyes cannot see the difference.

  • Richard HaseltineRichard Haseltine Posts: 100,765

    You don't render at 300PPI, you render to a pixel size (which you can generate by multiplying the physical size by the PPI) - DS does not set the PPI value, so you will have to do that in an image editor (without resampling, so the pixel count/file size stays the same).

  • davidjones8418davidjones8418 Posts: 167
    Richard Haseltine said:

    You don't render at 300PPI, you render to a pixel size (which you can generate by multiplying the physical size by the PPI) - DS does not set the PPI value, so you will have to do that in an image editor (without resampling, so the pixel count/file size stays the same).

    Yes, I am trying to work out how big to make the render. I would have thought no point unnecessarily rendering a huge image that will just get squished down to a little image on a sheet and printed at 300 dpi.

    I just wonder if there are any rules of thumb.

     

  • 3Ddreamer3Ddreamer Posts: 1,300

    I have a note of this for myself - the numbers might not be 100% right but a starting point

    Printing sizes

    A6    1240pxl x 1748pxl
    A5    1748pxl x 2480pxl
    A4    2480pxl x 2508pxl
    A3    3508pxk x 4961pxl

    change from 96dpi to 300dpi in Photoshop

  • FishtalesFishtales Posts: 6,119

    A 6"x4" print at 300ppi is 1800x1200 pixels. If you print at 200ppi you can get a 9"x6" print.

    A 12"x8" print at 300ppi is 3600x2400 pixels. If you print at 200ppi you can get a 18"x12" print.

  • Richard HaseltineRichard Haseltine Posts: 100,765
    davidjones8418 said:
    Richard Haseltine said:

    You don't render at 300PPI, you render to a pixel size (which you can generate by multiplying the physical size by the PPI) - DS does not set the PPI value, so you will have to do that in an image editor (without resampling, so the pixel count/file size stays the same).

    Yes, I am trying to work out how big to make the render. I would have thought no point unnecessarily rendering a huge image that will just get squished down to a little image on a sheet and printed at 300 dpi.

    I just wonder if there are any rules of thumb.

     

    Assuming you know the size, in Render Settings just enter width * 300 in the width box and height * 300 in the height box and DS will do the sum for you.

  • OstadanOstadan Posts: 1,125
    Richard Haseltine said:

    Assuming you know the size, in Render Settings just enter width * 300 in the width box and height * 300 in the height box and DS will do the sum for you.

    Damn, learn something new every day.  I guess that with Studio, much of it is 'learn by experiment', and so one misses nifty options like this.

  • SpottedKittySpottedKitty Posts: 7,232
    davidjones8418 said:
    Yes, I am trying to work out how big to make the render. I would have thought no point unnecessarily rendering a huge image that will just get squished down to a little image on a sheet and printed at 300 dpi.

    The thing to remember is that the "huge image" isn't at 300dpi, it's at whatever your screen resolution is. The not-actually-unnecessary "huge image" data doesn't vanish when it's shrunk, the screen-resolution render image and 300dpi print file contain (if you've done your sums right) exactly the same data.

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