If you look at my earlier post, you will see a screenshot of the DPL print dialog Resolution (Dpi) in print module. I am guessing what you are doing here is changing the dpi setting on the main print dialog, effectively setting the image resolution, even though it uses the term “dpi”, something that will result in a different sized image on the print. I can’t see, on that dialog, anywhere where you would set the printer resolution instead.
The Mac dialog is much more comprehensive and has a separate tab for printer (dpi) resolution. What happens if you click on the “Printer properties…” button? Is there not a separate means of setting the printer resolution there?
And that is why we leave the conversion from ppi to dpi to the printer driver. There are just too many variables with different printers and each manufacturer’s driver looks after the whole messy business. All you need to do is to resize the image to the correct pixel dimensions by exporting from DPL, then open the exported, resized, image and send that to the printer at 100% size. Although it would appear, in the Windows version of, that it is not as easy to print at a specified size without messing around with margins, etc.
Print dialog is using something as a print triangle,sorry, print size=image size in inch x size in pixels.
2)The printer has it’s own printer resolution(s).
3)If that image is send to the printer, the printer driver is doing some recalculation so the image size will be the same for every printer. In this the image size is the important variable, or maybe the constant.
4)Both dot and pixel are pieces of the smallest info. Printing is done in 1 pixel is 1 dot.
recalculation or resampling is done with new image size = old image size x (printer resolution/image resolution)
@platypus
I think you can only change the printer resolution in the printer properties. In my case anyway.
It would appear that, on the main dialog, in the Printer Settings section, there is a label that says “Resolution” - albeit that it is on the Print dialog under settings, this has nothing to do with printer resolution.
I do not have Windows. Can somebody confirm that, behind the “Printer properties…” button is a sub-dialog which allows the setting of the printer resolution, as opposed to the image resolution on the main dialog?
Correct. These should be on the “Printer properties…” sub-dialog
Again, assuming you mean what I think you mean, this is also correct.
Once again, I must remind you that 1 pixel does not equate to 1 dot. 1 pixel has to equate to more than 1 dot in order to allow dots of more than one colour to fit within it (see pointillism).
Resampling is only ever done at an image level, with pixels. Printer resolution plays absolutely no part whatever. If you want to increase the size of an image, you will always lose quality to a lesser or greater degree. You can either 1. double the number of pixels or 2. halve the ppi.
Then dot space setting: space between the dots.
Way the dot raster is layed out.
this matters how the printer places the CMYK-colors.
This is the advanged colorsettings:
profiles, level of colors in grey, how much “bleeding”
This is only a office printer, i can tel you when you see a printer for digital printing in high quality it’s even more options to choose from for finetuning.
In comparison my (not working inkjet because i hate buying inkcardridges and heads who dry’s out every month.) Canon mp540
nothing to do in fine tuning:
all depending on the software infront aka DPL)
Thank you all for such detailed replies and conversation.
The depth of knowledge is as impressive as the diversity of opinion.
A few observations:
The user interface seems to provide just a few parameters to use. My initial question was about whether the dpi field should be used to describe the image file or the printer. It arose from the fact that when I hover my cursor over the field, there is no pop-up help, and when I peruse manuals and videos I don’t find much either.
It seems some people here have huge swathes of theoretical knowledge and sophisticated mental models which they deploy to try to answer this question. Even with that level of knowledge there seems to be limited consensus.
This conversation is made more difficult because people use terminology differently.
Given the diversity of views and the various tangents, the conversation doesn’t really give a definitive authoritative answer to my question.
It would be far better if DXO themselves provided a definitive response in their manuals or pop=up help. Then we would all know how to use the product, and if it didn’t work their would be a commercial / reputational obligation for them to fix it.
A good user interface can be used by someone without a huge level of theoretical knowledge and mental models. Just as you can drive a car without knowing about engines; all you need to know about is the controls - accelerator, brake etc. You don’t need to know how they work. You do need to know whether to put petrol or diesel in, but you don’t need to know how many cylinders it has. It would be nice if the print module of DXO Photoshop was like this. Life’s too short to learn all the internal workings.
Excellent!!! @George, this is where you set the printer resolution, not on the main dialog. This controls the print quality.
So, we can definitely say that “Resolution” on the main dialog has nothing to do with the printer resolution in dpi - it is inappropriately labeled as “dpi” when it should be “ppi”. In theory, you should be able to set this to any value. Can someone confirm this?
In my opinion the different colors are laid at the same position. So 1 printer dot contains more droplets.
The result is equal. Dots and pixels are equal, only one is fysical and the other is not. When resampling an image I have different tools to do that out of which I can choose. But I think a main difference between an image and a print is, that I can view the image at 100% and edit it. A print is less sensitive.
Not in PL. There predefined paper sizes are used. The image resolution is calculated from that. You know, that print triangle
In Irfanview you can, there is also an option: print real size.
In PL the resolution is showing the active printer resolution. Though you can change the field, nothing happens. We are not the only one struggling with printers.
In your opinion maybe, but not in reality. If you take a strong loupe to an inkjet print, you will see that each dot has its own position. It is impossible for the inks to mix on the paper, they dry too quickly. Once again, see how pointillism works
OK. So now, instead of showing us the dialog from IrfanView, go to the print dialog in DPL, click on the “Printer properties…” button and take a screenshot of that to show us please?
It is definitely for setting the image resolution, not the printer’s
Rob, you are right in so many ways. And it all stems from the fact that the DPL printer dialog is very poorly conceived when compared with other software. I would agree that DxO should take steps to update this dialog to make it less confusing and easier to understand/use.
Thank you for your initial question. Even though we seemed to take off at various tangents, it has been useful to air the subject. We can but hope that DxO can respond
I changed the resolution in pl to 75, papersize Nort America 3x5. I did get a print on A4 of 10x16.7, in the left bottom corner.
Changing to 300 dpi a same size but more to the middle. Idem with 5444. But then I saw something. The resoltion of 5444 just stay’s there but as soon as I hit the print buttom it changes to 1200.
ok what i can do for you:
i print a 50dpi ,100dpi and a 200dpi and 300dpi and 600dpi in file and stick this in a printer when i am working again over 1 week.
edit: (i can’t after close examination: i can’t print to file, create a printerfile.prn which i can set on a usb and print directly in the usb of the printer. like this:
or this:
DxO hassn’t build in this function.
(And forgot this one:
for overrulling the calibration of the printer:
The value of ppi does totally NOTHING on a viewing screen.
only thing what does some action is “longest size”
when i use the printer version:
Then it does some thing:
By the way because i always let the printer sort it out and not the export of the application this is new for me to see what effect’s it holds.
video: test of 600ppi and 600ppirs and 72ppi
it seems to define how many pixels it uses to define 1 dot. (that’s why 600ppi resampled is such a small image)
finally the PPI setting is “how much Pixels i may use to define 1 dot!”
i don’t print much in this way, most i do is view on screen.
(i am very curious if my printer does anything with this “resolution set to 300 ppi” thing.)
