72 DPI or 300 DPI - Which Is Better For Web And Print Both?

[Guest]

Firstly, I know this is a long post, but it was necessary.

I am making a website where images will be available on web, but they can also be saved by users and printed. So I was wondering how much DPI should I choose.

I decided to google it out. But I am super confused right now, because I am getting completely different answers to this question.

Use Case:

- Adobe photoshop file (.psd)

- High resolution photograph

- 1000 px by 1000 px

- Saved as .jpg

- Upload to website as well (file size not an issue)

- Photo can be saved via website and printed

There are 4 different websites I found giving me 4 different answers.

Website 1: 300 DPI

Print - 72 DPI < 300 DPI

URL: http://www.vsellis.com/understanding-dpi-resolution-and-print-vs-web-images/

"Print: 300dpi is standard, sometimes 150 is acceptable but never lower, you may go higher for some situations."

With examples of 300dpi and 72dpi.

Website 2: 72 DPI

Web - 72 DPI = 300 DPI

Print - 72 DPI > 300 DPI

URL: https://daraskolnick.com/image-dpi-web/

This author shows an example of how 72 DPI and 300 DPI look when printed. And guess what, the 72 DPI image looks bigger. How???

Please search for:

"Remember the three images I showed you above with different DPI values that look exactly the same on the web? Here’s what they’d look like printed:"

72 DPI - https://daraskolnick.com/daraskolnick/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/72-231x300.png

300 DPI - https://daraskolnick.com/daraskolnick/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/300-232x300.jpg

Website 3: 300 DPI

Print - 72 DPI < 300 DPI

"300 DPI is usually a good rule of thumb."

URL: https://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/questions/95/what-dpi-should-be-used-for-what-situations

Website 4: 72 DPI

412 x 324 pixels, 7 dpi, prints 58 x 46 inches

412 x 324 pixels, 72 dpi, prints 5.7 x 4.5 inches

412 x 324 pixels, 720 dpi, prints 0.57 x 0.45 inches

URL: http://www.scantips.com/no72dpi.html

Sorry, but I don't understand what is going on here. Someone please care to explain??

Thanks in advance!

PS. Researching about this confused me even more. Haha.    

[gener7]

Pixels are screen units. That's what you go by when designing for screen.

Dpi is a print term and has no relation to the screen pixels.  The more accurate term is "Pixels per Inch" It's actually instructions to the printer.

A 100 x 100 px image will cover one inch of paper when printed at 100 ppi.  Increase print resolution to 300 ppi and it will be about 1/3 x 1/3 of an inch.

72 ppi is a legacy term from the old 1984 MacIntosh screens. If there is no print data, that's what Photoshop defaults to.

[Guest]

So how much DPI should I choose in this case?

[gener7]

Depends:

Laserprint: 200-225

Commercial offset press: 267-300

Photo stylus Inkjet: 360

Make sure you have the pixels for the size you want:  20 inch photo print 360 x 20 = 7200 pixels.

The lesson is to capture the maximum your camera or scanner will give you.

[Theresa J]

The question should be how many pixels do I need, and the answer will depend on the printer. gener7​ does a good job of explaining this is his first post. I recorded a YouTube tutorial about this topic. It should help explain what resolution is. Photoshop Image Size and Resolution - YouTube

[Test Screen Name]

It's print OR web. You must choose. If you want to make both available, and this is often done, the screen image can link to the print image. Otherwise it's like asking which compact car is best for transporting an elephant. No amount of fiddling with the details can make it suitable for both.

[Derek Cross]

As usual Test Screen Name has come up with the succinct and excellent answer – building on his elephant metaphor, it's horses for courses. Most people seem to build websites nowadays that are around 1000px wide so no image should be wider than this, often smaller, but you can add links on your site to hi-res JPG images and PDFs that users can download for printing themselves.

And bear in mind most people are viewing website on tablets and smartphones phones, so your site should be designed to be responsive (rearrange itself to suit the viewing device).

[CreativeBushra]

So, being a Photshop user since version 3.0, I am very familiar with these numbers:

72 dpi (or ppi pixel per inch to be more politically correct): Web and multimedia output

300 dpi: Professional print (image setters for offset printing)

The original question was, and my quesion is, when preparing an image for TV (not web, not print) what number should we use in the resolution field on the Image Size dialog box in Photoshop?

Thank you so much.

[Test Screen Name]

For TV it’s absolutely irrelevant what ppi to use.  The pixel size of the video format should be known, design to that. You can set the resolution to 72, 300, 27, or 4500, it makes no difference. Repeat: it makes no difference. If you are still puzzled, repeat again. 

[Lumigraphics]

TV is typically HD nowadays, so 1280x720 or 1920x1080 pixels will work for most fullscreen use cases. PPI is irrelevant.

[Dazzer_21]

For web, you can work at whatever size (dpi) you're comfortable with. It doesn't make a jot of difference whether you work at 72dpi or 720 dpi as you are working to physical pixel DIMENSIONS as opposed to have to work with RESOLUTION constraints. One thing to bear in mind, though, is that if you create an image in Photoshop on a 'normal' ~72 pixel per inch screen, seeing it on a Retina screen at a far higher ~200ppi, your image in Photoshop is going to look a lot smaller at normal size, even through the physical size is exactly the same.

For print, however, it's an utterly different ballgame. It's OK to be asked for a 300dpi photo (bitmap image) but you need to know how it will be used. For vector artwork, this isn't an issue. For instance, the minimum requirement for a screen-printed magazine ad and that of a 96-sheet billboard poster are majorly different. The magazine will typically ask for a 300dpi image which is *about* right. However, for your billboard poster, that number is closer to 30. If you are looking at something close up, in order for the image to be crystal clear, the dots (or pixels in the on-screen sense) need to be close together. For items you look at from afar, that is not the case. In terms of file size alone, a 300dpi 96-sheet poster would be HUGE!! Knowing that in itself could save you from major headaches...