Image Print Size Calculator

An image has no physical size until it is printed

A file of 3000 by 2000 pixels has no inherent dimensions in inches or centimetres. It becomes 10 by 6.7 inches at 300 pixels per inch, or 25 by 16.7 inches at 120. The DPI number stored in a file is only a suggestion to whatever prints it, and changing it alters nothing about the pixels. This is why "increase the DPI to 300" achieves nothing on its own: without more pixels, the print simply comes out smaller.

300 DPI is a rule for things held in the hand

The 300 figure comes from the resolving power of the eye at reading distance, around 25 to 30 centimetres. Anything viewed further away needs proportionally less: a poster read at two metres is fine at 100, and a billboard at 20 metres is routinely printed at 10 to 20. Applying the 300 rule to a large print wastes an enormous number of pixels and frequently makes people believe an image is unusable when it is perfectly adequate.

Enlarging adds pixels, not detail

Upscaling produces a file with more pixels containing exactly the same information, interpolated between what was there. Modern upscalers make a convincing guess at the missing detail and are guessing rather than recovering, which matters where the detail is meaningful, such as a document or a face. Printing slightly below the ideal resolution generally looks better than upscaling to reach it.

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