i am pretty sure i used to export from LR in 300 dpi... just realized that with the new laptop and having downloaded LR from cloud, it defaulted to 240 dpi, and i haven't changed it...
so... which is "better"?
(and yes - i googled and am now thoroughly baffled)
My LR always defaulted to 240dpi but I have recently changed it to 300dpi. Partly because I was having some pictures printed onto canvas and it was recommended by the print shop to have a 300dpi or higher image for the printing. I must admit that most of what I have had printed is 240dpi as I didn't reprocess anything. I am thinking of printing another batch which I will do at 300dpi.
I'm glad you asked this. I've only recently discovered this in the menu as an option. I was printing some of my photos and exported at highest quality and at 300 or 350 (just experimenting) dpi. The prints came out quite good, I thought, though I couldn't distinguish between the 300 or higher. Also, since I'd exported at highest quality, that could have contributed as well.
@northy DPI has no effect on the quality of a digital image. It comes into play only when submitting a image for printing, and then its merely a conversion factor to ensure the image resolution is high enough to meet the requested physical print dimensions. For computer screen display 100dpi is sufficient, but honestly I wouldn't bother changing the default setting; 240 should plenty for all but the very demanding (e.g. commercial/advertising/etc) print jobs
As @dbj said, it's only an issue when used to print. 300, 240, 72, it will produce the same result when shown on a PC screen. The total number of "pixels" is all that matters. A PC screen cannot vary the number of "dots per inch" (it has pixels and not dots anyway) in the same way that a printer can. Try it here on 365, you'll see that setting makes zero difference to its Internet/Screen presentation.
The setting, further, does not affect the digital source file either. Unless you resize/resample explicitly. Think of "dpi" more as a piece of meta data that only is interpreted by a printer on how "spread out" the actual "dots" are. Not quite the whole truth, but unless you are a typesetter, accurate enough.
@ltodd tx Lyn! should have thought to check 365 first...
@vstap that's interesting... first i've come across anything to suggest a different dpi for black and white... i'll have to look into that one some more!
@dbj@frankhymus tx - i don't know why i angst about this stuff, but i do... i shall stop now :)
@salza let me know if you try that and see a difference...
@taffy i know - i tend to want to go for the highest quality possible... just because... even for things i will never print!
@frankhymus Given all that was explained, I have one more semi-related question (for Frank, most likely). If I crop a photo to a much smaller size, will increasing the dpi substantially help lead to a clearer shot to print? It seems like doing that makes a larger file, but I suspect that doesn't necessarily mean a better quality print?
@taffy Not really. It's the quality of the pixels that make up the image, and if you have resampled appropriately as you have cropped. But really, unless you are printing huge prints (4x6 feet) it really doesn't make that much difference if you are printing smaller. Certainly if all you use to prepare for the printer is Lightroom.
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Hope that helps...
The setting, further, does not affect the digital source file either. Unless you resize/resample explicitly. Think of "dpi" more as a piece of meta data that only is interpreted by a printer on how "spread out" the actual "dots" are. Not quite the whole truth, but unless you are a typesetter, accurate enough.
Here's a Wikipedia reference. Not a great explanation, but you should get the idea.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dots_per_inch
http://365project.org/discuss/tips-n-tricks/16607/dpi-untangling-conflicting-information
another interesting tangential post worth reading is http://regex.info/blog/lightroom-goodies/jpeg-quality on the quality setting on LR export
@vstap that's interesting... first i've come across anything to suggest a different dpi for black and white... i'll have to look into that one some more!
@dbj @frankhymus tx - i don't know why i angst about this stuff, but i do... i shall stop now :)
@salza let me know if you try that and see a difference...
@taffy i know - i tend to want to go for the highest quality possible... just because... even for things i will never print!