We are often asked how to determine the physical size of a print, based on pixel dimensions. It's quite easy to calculate, given the width and height (how many pixels wide and high your digital image is). The print size calculator below will not only help with determining print size based on your image dimensions, but it will also give you a real-life visual reference in terms of how large the print will actually be. If you have never used a print size calculator before, simply follow the steps below. Its easy!
1. Locate the Image's Width and Height Measurement in Pixels
Windows PC users can find this by right clicking the image file and choosing "Properties”. Then by selecting the “Summary” tab and clicking on “Advanced” . Mac users can right click the image file and go to "Get Info”. Pixel dimensions are listed under “dimensions” as ‘width x height’.
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Windows |
MAC |
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Right click image file
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Select “Properties”
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Select the “Summary” tab
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Left click “Advanced”
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Right click once on your image file
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Select “Get Info”
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2. Specify Resolution
The next thing to do is determine a suitable resolution (Pixels Per Inch or PPI). Professionals are commonly using a resolution between 200-300 for their best prints, but anything between 100-200 is considered quite good by most. The minimum resolution or ppi recommended for print is 72. Anything lower will appear fuzzy, grainy, and pixelated.
3. Input Numbers into the Print Size Calculator
Everything described above may seem somewhat technical. If you are like me and not a big fan of math then a pixels to inches converter will help. To simplify things I have created this tool to figure out what is an appropriate size based upon the total number of pixels your image contains.