Digital Scrapbooking DPI/PPI Standards, Here’s my Take: Options

[Cindy/Chip]

I've been involved in several discussions about the digi-scrapping industry standard for PPI settings. I was asked about this again this morning. It's not really an easy thing to slip into a short PM and it sometimes launches into lengthy conversations. So I decided to share my thoughts here and on my blog.

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This PPI thing is very important when it comes to digital scrapbooking. So I say, make sure you do your homework and clearly understand it. It’s important because we use digital products for the primary purpose of preserving our family history. What could be more important than that to a digital scrapper?! The dots-per-inch (dpi) or pixels-per-inch (ppi) measurement is as important to digi-scrappers as Acid Free and Archival quality is to paper scrappers. Both a paper and digi scrapper myself, I won’t settle for sub-standard pages in my own books and you shouldn’t either. With that said, let me explain a few DPI/PPI facts to you as it relates to digital scrapbooking.

I create my pages and most my products in 200-PPI, many times combining products made in both 300 and 200 levels. I'm definitely not opposed to creating in 300-PPI when participating on websites that have set this as their standard. I just prefer 200-PPI. My 200-PPI products have been tested and print as beautifully as my 300-PPI. There is NO difference in quality! But don’t take my word for it. Run tests on your system and see for yourself. See link below for assistance with this.

What is DPI/PPI and how do you decide which level is best?

I could go into a long, drawn out, very detailed, explanation of this and it would totally confuse most scrappers. If you are interested in these specifics, run a search on the web and you will get more information than you probably want. But the difference between the two is worth understanding if you dare to take the time. The short and sweet answer to this question is that DPI (Dots Per Inch) and PPI (Pixels Per Inch) are terms that are found interchangably in many conversations and they refer to measurements of resolution. PPI is for pixels (referring to onscreen colors), while DPI is for dots (refering to printed colors). I will simply use PPI hence forward, to give my fingers a typing break. Your PPI count needs to be high enough for good quality prints. The PPI will make or break the quality of the images you preserve for your memory books. As the family historian I hope you pay close attention to this!

The 72-96 PPI level is commonly used for web graphics, and looks great on screen. But graphics in this resolution would not print well. Depending on what you are printing, 150-300 PPI is normally suggested. Many have suggested 300 PPI is the scrapbooking industry print standard. But don’t accept this blindly. Remember that digital scrapping is a rather new industry and the standards are actually still being set.

The 300 PPI resolution is commonly accepted by professional graphic designers because their images are made to be color separated. They are made into printing plates, and printed on commercial presses. Because this is the highest PPI, the first digi-scrappers on the scene made the assumption that the highest must be the best. However, that isn’t necessarily so. Bigger isn’t always better. What wasn’t taken into consideration at that time was that since digi-scrappers are printing images on ink jet printers, our optimal settings could possibly be different. In fact the 300 PPI setting is overkill for scrapbooking.

Using the 300 PPI setting will definitely give you good quality prints! However, more and more digi-scrappers, disagree with 300 PPI being the optimal choice. Because 200 PPI offers an absolutely great print quality and more! Consider that the originally adopted PPI was for photographs, which have more fine detail than digital scrapping products. Digi-scrap products are backgrounds or embellishments, designed to use WITH your photographs. Because 200 PPI is also sufficient for high quality photograph prints, it is certainly sufficient for digital scrapping kits, and much more economical.

So what is the best setting? Well, months of research (by others as well as myself) shows that the printing experts don’t always agree on the best image resolution for ink jet printers. The accepted range for printing high quality photos from home specifically for archiving scrapbook layouts is 150-250 PPI. Checkout the websites and informational material that comes with both your printer AND your software product. You will see that I’m not just throwing out random numbers. I’m telling you the truth here!

This discussion has become rather popular and you can now find several articles on the web about the 200-PPI vs 300-DPI scrapping standard debates - with many experienced digi-scrappers moving toward the direction of the fairly new 200 PPI standard. You’ll also find that there are still those who retain the opinion that the tried and true original 300 PPI is the best standard. Well meaning scrappers and experienced professionals speak passionately from both sides of the fence. So making a decision on what standard you wish to adopt for your own family history preservation needs can be confusing.

I highly encourage you to read articles and run tests on your system to see for yourself the difference. Just like picking out a graphics program that best fits your needs, it’s more of a personal preference or comfort-zone thing than anything else. That is as long as you stay above the 150-PPI level. Anything lower is just not going to print well and you’d be doing your family an injustice with these lower quality prints.

A Word about Printers, Scanners, and Papers:
There are a ton of printer and scanner options on the market that will give you great prints without blowing your budget. Do a search for reviews and research the best printer for you. Generally speaking, you will probably get the best results by using the same brand of printer, ink, and paper. Manufacturers always recommend specific papers for their printers, not just to keep your business, but also because the chemical properties of their paper products are formulated with the printer makers' own inks in mind. If you're looking to print photos or any kind of archival documentation, your best bet is to go with the manufacturer's paper recommendation. Check out the "Inside PC Labs: Becoming the Prince of Prints," article by Glenn Menin, ( http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,56280,00.asp ) for more details on this. Learn about your Scanner dpi by reviewing the company’s website and your user manual. Then I repeat again what is well worth repeating…. I recommend you experiment to find the best PPI setting and paper for your scrapbook page prints.

Be sure to Test PPI Values Properly! Creating an image at 300 PPI and then resizing it to 200 PPI is not a fair evaluation. This is where people get confused and sometimes see lost quality in their printout. You must create an image at 300 PPI, then create the same image at 200 PPI to do a proper comparison. For instructions on creating the same image with the same settings at different resolutions, check out the tutorial by Sally Beacham, co-author of Paint Shop Pro 8 Zero to Hero. (http://www.dizteq.com/ppitest.html) She’s a contributor to PSP Power, teaches at LVS online, and digi-scraps as well.

This print test will help you become familiar with your digi scrapping equipment and with your PPI decision. Then you’ll be able to relax over this matter and enjoy your digi-scrapping activities!


The Digi-Scrapping Industry is Changing (Slowly):
As of this writing many digital websites, designers, and stores that sell digital scrapbooking products still use the 300-PPI resolution as their standard. However there are several leaders in the digi-scrapping industry, starting to realize the many benefits of the 200-PPI resolution and have begun to change their standards. Online stores are now selling 200-PPI products and web communities are even adopting this as their business standard. The Digital Scrapbook Place is perhaps the most prevalent one leading the way. This is one of my favorite digi-scrap sites on the web. They have many highly experienced kit designers and well over 3200 products in their store on any given day, all in 200-PPI!

Unfortunately many scrappers don't know how to properly mix 200 PPI products with 300 PPI products to get a well proportioned LO. So they stick with the 300-PPI products only and really miss out on a ton of wonderful products out there! BTW – I digi scrap using both and will be adding a tutorial on this subject in the very near future!

While change is sometimes difficult for people to accept, it’s not necessarily a bad thing. In this case the realization that 200-PPI is great for preserving our family history, also open the doors to several other benefits for digital scrappers. The most recognized benefits are:

• The storage space needed for 200-PPI files is significantly lower
• The smaller files make transfers go faster and easier
• The smaller files also give website owners more for their money with server and band space purchases
• Computer system RAM requirements are lower and software products can handle the 200-PPI size files much easier than 300-PPI. Resulting in fewer crashes and reboots!

So that’s it in a nutshell. Okay, a big nutshell. But I hope this gives you enough information to help you understand the role PPI count plays in your digi-scrapping needs and how the industry is now opening up to this space-saving concept.

Bottom line: Don’t just adopt the opinions and standards of others. Instead, read up on how PPI works, and then test your system so you’ll know what works well for you! Then if you find yourself wanting to mix up those wonderful 200ppi products with some great 300ppi products you already have in your stash – learn how to do it! You will definitely be a wiser and happier digi-scrapper for it!

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I'd love to hear your thoughts on this issue. Please share your opinions!

[Cindy/Chip]

More info -- The attached article was written by and provided here with permission from Lisa Carter. She's done a ton of research on the DPI/PPI issue and has a wealth of experience in the digital scrapbooking world. She's one of the Senior Designers at DSP and I have several of her beautiful kits!

If you are a digi scrapper, her article is worth a read! IMHO

--> When I asked her permission to post her article here, she emailed me this little note:

That is fine if you want to post it or link it either way.

On a different note...yet the same: Many people refer to ppi as dpi and a lot of people know what you mean by context...but be careful when talking with people who don't know about referring to ppi as dpi cause they are totally different.

Think of it like this...
when you make and image in PS you can have 16 million colors...so obviously the printer does not have 16 million ink cartridges...therefore to make one pixel takes multiple dots...thus meaning that the amount of dots per inch is going to be substantially higher than the amount of pixels per inch. This is one reason you see printers claim they can print 2400dpi...yes they can...but that is not 2400ppi by any means.

Good luck with your quest of informing people of the resolution debate. Fact is there are some people who no matter what you say will claim that 200ppi is not quality. This is so not true. When i was researching for my article i spent HOURS upon HOURS talking with professional printers, photographers, graphic designers and such and learned so much. I also contacted Scott Kelby's office (the guru of Photoshop) and my reply from his office was that people often THINK they need more resolution than they actually do. If you ever read his books and such you will see he suggests 180 a lot
anyhows...Good luck and if you have any questions please feel free to email me.

Oh and by the way...not sure if this is in the article or not but did you know that a 300ppi image can actually print worse than a lower resolution image at times?
This is because of the ink and paper. some papers can not absorb all the ink therefore it causes bleeding and the image is then blurred.

Click on the attachment below to read the article. If you prefer to save it to read later and refer back to right click on it and then save it to your hardrive. BTW - you'll need a copy of the Acrobat Reader to view it. Let me know if you need a copy of the reader and I'll link you to their free download site. Please remember this is a copyrighted article!

Attached File(s)

 Scrapbook_20Resolution.pdf ( 416.36K ) Number of downloads: 12

 

[csgebhart]

Cindy - this is really interesting information. I have printed layouts in 200ppi and 300ppi and can't tell any quality difference. Have you ever written your tutorial about combining the two products? I do it myself occassionally and just resize anything that looks too big - but then I do that even when I don't combine.