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How to specify the DPI I want my Canon Pixma TS9020 to print at?

jackm
Apprentice

I want to print something at exactly 600 dpi but I can't find the option anywhere to change this. Can anyone help?

10 REPLIES 10

rs-eos
Elite

What is the size of the image you are printing? i.e. whatever will be within any margins?

e.g. say that is 8 inches by 10 inches.  So your source image can then be 4800 x 6000 pixels which would then be exactly 600 dpi for that 8 by 10 print.

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Ricky

Camera: EOS 5D IV, EF 50mm f/1.2L, EF 135mm f/2L
Lighting: Profoto Lights & Modifiers

ebiggs1
Legend
Legend

You change that on the photo editor. Not the camera or printer. You can d/l DPP4 free from Canon or like me you can get Photoshop.

EB
EOS 1DX and 1D Mk IV and less lenses then before!

sterlingr2911
Contributor

I also have this issue with my printer I cannot find the correct setting for best prints 

ebiggs1
Legend
Legend

People have a deep misunderstanding of what DPI means or is. The printer prints what it is told to print. Yes, some printers have an Economy mode or a Draft mode that reduces the DPI in favor of faster printing or ink saving but essentially the printer does what it is told to do.

You need a good post editor. I like and use Photoshop but you can d/l DPP4 form Canon (it's free and is pretty good) if you do not want to get PS. DPI stands for dots per Inch, it is the number of ink droplets a printer will produce per inch while printing an image. The higher the DPI, the better the print quality will be. The higher the DPI, the larger the file size will be.

To confuse matters a bit more, you’ve probably seen the term PPI used.  This acronym means Pixels Per Inch. In any case, DPI and PPI are often misused. Even software and entire operating systems use DPI, when they really mean PPI which is more technically correct.  Printers don't have PPI and computer monitors don't have DPI. 

Let's say you want an 8x10 inch print at 300 DPI. You would set your image size in PPI in your photo editor to 2400 x 3000 pixels. Why? Because 8 x 300 = 2400 pixels and 10x300 = 3000 pixels. Now the printer doing what it is told to do will print at 300 DPI. 

EB
EOS 1DX and 1D Mk IV and less lenses then before!

I have the dpi already in th se images I am printing over 300 I do believe. thanks for this information, now I do make my images straight from Canva pro. Does this program do the same? 

ebiggs1
Legend
Legend

"Does this program do the same? "

I have no idea how that software works but the concept I laid out works. So if you can do that it will work.

Using Ricky's example above if you consider 8" x 600px = 4600px and 10" x 600px = 6000px your printer will make the print at 600 DPI. Keep in mind depending on what printer you have, it has to be able to print at the settings you set. Typically inkjet printers are capable of anywhere in the area of 300 to 720 DPI. Usually 300 DPI is  sufficient.

It is considered the standard for high-quality printing. 

 

 

 

 

 

EB
EOS 1DX and 1D Mk IV and less lenses then before!

Notice the download settings on this if you see anything?! Along the lines of what you’re telling us here. 

IMG_4815.png

No idea of what this is either.   Suggest that you follow this workflow to print things:

  1. Ensure your image is in the correct aspect ratio of the media you'll be printing to.  Otherwise, your image may end up squashed/stretched in one dimension, or end up cropped.
  2. Ensure that you take care of setting things up correctly for proper color workflows.
  3. What is the physical size of the media you'll be printing to?  And what are the capabilities of the printer or what is your minimal DPI you'd want? See the examples posted earlier in this thread if you need to have exact values. Otherwise, if you sent an image to a printer where its resolution is high enough, the printer should output an appropriate high quality print.

In short, I feel it's more important to get the aspect ratio and color all correct.  Then, use an image with high-enough resolution to get high quality prints.

--
Ricky

Camera: EOS 5D IV, EF 50mm f/1.2L, EF 135mm f/2L
Lighting: Profoto Lights & Modifiers

ebiggs1
Legend
Legend

I really don't know what I am looking at but it looks like you are d/l a file for screen viewing and not printing.  DPI isn't relevant here. You see one big problem to this issue is some apps refer to DPI when they actually mean PPI. Also there is a space for DPI in EXIF or meta data tag for DPI and they use 72 as a default. It really means nothing. You can't have DPI until you print.

EB
EOS 1DX and 1D Mk IV and less lenses then before!
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