image quality good, print quality poor

[Ursula]

I have inserted an image (JPG)into my document that is 300dpi.
On screen it looks fine, but it prints very poorly, as a 72dpi.
What's going on here?

 

[Kate G.]

first understand that DPI (the way printers/scanners are "measured") and PPI
(Pixels per inch) ARE NOT the same thing.

For good quality resolution when printing.... you need at least 250-300
PPI. Otherwise the image will look very "pixely". You can change the PPI
setting in a graphics editor (such as Microsoft Photo Editor, PaintshopPro
or Photoshop). When you change the PPI -- the image size will also change
(an increase in PPI will make the image smaller -- think graph paper and the
size of the squares --- 4 squares to the inch vs 22 squares per inch - a
fixed number of pixels -- it is the size of the space you fit them into that
changes.) Try to draw a circle on both of those graph papers -- On the 4
squares / inch you will have a very jagged edge to your circle and with the
22 squares / inch it will appear much smoother.

And remember, regardless of the quality of printer (600 dpi or 2400 dpi) if
the image has a very LOW PIXELS PER INCH (PPI) setting -- the image WILL NOT
be clear.

I hope this helps.

Kate in MN

 

[ZenRock3]

In MS word you can set the PPI just by scaling the image on the page. You dont have to go out to a paint program. Most people want an image to be a certain size on the page so decreasing the PPI or making the image smaller is not helpful.

It would me more informative to find out how many pixels are in the image she is using. If it is set to print out 7 inches across and the image was 1024 X 768 then it would print out at 146 pixels per inch of paper. So if she sends it to print at 150 DPI or more there would be no image information lost and the pixels would be quite small. If it is only 320 X 240 then it would print out at 45 pixels per inch of paper and would probably look pixellated no matter what DPI settings she sent it out at.

She stated that the image is 300DPI which is unclear but might mean the image would print 300 pixels per inch of paper at whatever size she has it scaled to on the page. If it is 7 inches across the that would make it about 2048 pixels wide and should not look pixellated at any standard printer DPI setting.