Digital photo print resolution tutorial
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If you want to print out digital photos its important to use a high enough resolution photo for the size you want to print and that is an important factor to think about when buying a new digital camera. This Print Resolution Tutorial will hopefully help you.
If you are not sure how many megapixel your camera is then please use my guide to megapixels to help you work it out.
Standard print sizes
| Wanted Size | Low Quality 100dpi |
Medium Quality 200dpi |
High Quality 300dpi |
| 6 in x 4 in or 15 cm x 10 cm |
At least 0.50 Megapixel | At least 1.25 Megapixel | At least 2.50 Megapixel |
| 7 in x 5 in or 17.5 cm x 22.5 cm |
At least 0.50 Megapixel | At least 1.50 Megapixel | At least 3.50 Megapixel |
| 8 in x 6 in or 20 cm x 15 cm |
At least 0.50 Megapixel | At least 2.25 Megapixel | At least 4.50 Megapixel |
| 10 in x 8 in or 25 cm x 20 cm |
At least 1.00 Megapixel | At least 3.50 Megapixel | At least 7.75 Megapixel |
High quality print sizes by megapixel
| 1 Megapixel | 3.8 x 2.9 Inches | 9.8 x 7.3 Centimetres |
| 2 Megapixel | 5.4 x 4.1 Inches | 13.8 x 10.4 Centimetres |
| 3 Megapixel | 6.7 x 5.0 Inches | 16.9 x 12.7 Centimetres |
| 4 Megapixel | 7.7 x 5.8 Inches | 19.6 x 14.7 Centimetres |
| 5 Megapixel | 8.6 x 6.5 Inches | 21.9 x 16.4 Centimetres |
| 6 Megapixel | 9.4 x 7.1 Inches | 23.9 x 18.0 Centimetres |
| 7 Megapixel | 10.2 x 7.6 Inches | 25.9 x 19.4 Centimetres |
| 8 Megapixel | 10.9 x 8.2 Inches | 27.7 x 20.7 Centimetres |
| 9 Megapixel | 11.5 x 8.7 Inches | 29.3 x 22.0 Centimetres |
| 10 Megapixel | 12.2 x 9.1 Inches | 30.9 x 23.2 Centimetres |
| 11 Megapixel | 12.8 x 9.6 Inches | 32.4 x 24.3 Centimetres |
| 12 Megapixel | 13.3 x 10.0 Inches | 33.9 x 25.4 Centimetres |
| 13 Megapixel | 13.9 x 10.4 Inches | 35.2 x 26.4 Centimetres |
| 14 Megapixel | 14.4 x 10.8 Inches | 33.6 x 27.4 Centimetres |
| 15 Megapixel | 14.9 x 11.2 Inches | 37.9 x 28.4 Centimetres |
Please note:
Its also important to think about cropping images, its amazing how much difference you can make to photos by trimming them down a bit, but when you do that you lower the resolution. Cutting an image down lets you focus on just one thing in the photo and is also a sneaky way of increasing the zoom of your camera, so if you only want to print high quality photos at 6 inches x 4 inches then you could get a 9 megapixel camera with a 10 times zoom and then crop the image to half the size, it would have the same effect as using a 20 times zoom and the print quality would still be perfect. Due to things like that its always best to go for a higher megapixel camera that you actually need if you can afford to.
Copyright
This guide was 100% created by Dean Thorpe of Aspex Design, so please feel free to link to it if you think it is useful, but PLEASE do not copy it and use it on your own site, it took a lot of work to create. If you want to print it out for educational reasons then that is fine, just don't claim you created it or make profit out of it. Sorry to sound negative, but I have had a few bad experiences with people selling my creations on eBay!
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