Let??™s assume that 300dpi is about
right for your printer. To determine how big your image should be (in other words, how many
pixels it needs) before you print it, just multiply the output size you want (in inches) by 300. The
following chart illustrates the minimum dimensions of your image for a variety of common print
sizes with an inkjet printer:
Print Size (inches) File Size (pixels) Approximate Camera Resolution Needed
4?—6 800?—1200 1 megapixel
8?—10 1600?—2000 3 megapixel
11?—17 2200?—3400 6 megapixel
13?—19 2600?—3800 10 megapixel
Wow. Surprised? It takes a lot of pixels to make high-quality prints. So what does that chart
mean??”that you should have a 10-megapixel camera to make a 13?—19-inch print with a wideformat
inkjet printer?
Well, yeah, that??™s exactly what it??™s saying. But there??™s good news: you can cheat. Many
printers will still give you great results, even if you feed them an image that??™s underpixeled. In
other words, suppose you have a 1600?—1200-pixel image. You might still get quite decent results
by printing it at 11?—17 inches, or perhaps even 13?—19. Try it out and see.
The expected viewing distance also plays a role. Here??™s what I mean: If you??™re printing a
5?—7-inch photo that people will hold in their hands, then you??™ll want the best resolution??”you??™ll
want to send a 300dpi photo to your printer, for example.
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