Image resolution / DPI

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  • Luca Troian, While I think Paul comes off a little aggressive, he is correct. DPI is meaningless when creating a computer generated image. What does matter is the output resolution and your field of view. The math is fairly simple as long as you know what you are setting up in advance.


    I'm going to use small numbers for simplicity's sake, but the math is still the same for larger numbers. If you want to render a image of a box in 300 dpi and you want a image size to be 2x1 you must make the output resolution 600 pixels x 300 pixels and using your position in frame and the field of view slider you can create a image that fits your parameters. There might be some image size scaling in Photoshop that will be required but that's one step at most. A DPI selector will only be necessary from Enscapes point of view if they add a new output option that lets you base the image size on a in/cm width and height.


    The only reason the blue box exists in Photoshop is because of the information in red box. Enscape doe not have image parameters based in real world dimensions(red box) so the blue box is not necessary.

  • Luca Troian, While I think Paul comes off a little aggressive, he is correct. DPI is meaningless when creating a computer generated image. What does matter is the output resolution and your field of view. The math is fairly simple as long as you know what you are setting up in advance.


    I'm going to use small numbers for simplicity's sake, but the math is still the same for larger numbers. If you want to render a image of a box in 300 dpi and you want a image size to be 2x1 you must make the output resolution 600 pixels x 300 pixels and using your position in frame and the field of view slider you can create a image that fits your parameters. There might be some image size scaling in Photoshop that will be required but that's one step at most. A DPI selector will only be necessary from Enscapes point of view if they add a new output option that lets you base the image size on a in/cm width and height.


    The only reason the blue box exists in Photoshop is because of the information in red box. Enscape doe not have image parameters based in real world dimensions(red box) so the blue box is not necessary.

    Thank you Tearch for your kind answer, so appreciated, I'm not arguing about the fact that dpi is a unit of measures about density of point in a printed area, so, on a screen, has limited sense, cause it's a screen not a printed piece of paper, but many of us need to print, and the difference is preatty clear, and when you go bigger is very clear... (in one case needed a 3x4 meters (9,8x13,12foot) and need to answer to client about limits of this plug-in) or in other case needed a thypographic print.

    I said limited sense, I imagine we all heard about same dimension monitor with different resolution, like 2k and 4k monitor for same dimension 27" screen.
    Are you saying that there's no difference about density of point on it? So why did exist this monitor? it's a difference preatty clear even with smartphone.
    All screens quality has both expression in resolution and density so dpi, maybe dpi isn't that precise as meter of comparison but isn't meaning less even on screen.

    For this reason I renew the request for a 300dpi option, that is an oportunity more, for all user of our beloved plugin.

  • Luca Troian I understand what you are wanting but enscape has the capability to custom pixel ratios, not just what your screens resolution is. If you are creating output renders based off your screens resolution and hoping them to come out ready for print, that is just not going to work. If you are printing a 10"x13" sheet and you want 300 dpi you need to set your output resolution to 3000x3900 and render that. Use that kind of calculation to create whatever size of print you want. The calculation is:


    _____(Single dimension of sheet) X ______(Desired DPI) = ______(output resolution)


    You put the output resolution here:














    Again, a DPI setting is not necessary.

    • Official Post

    Luca Troian , while I have forwarded your request to have DPI as a form of measurement instead of pixels, I hope the explanation from Tearch above me clears it up.


    There has been some confusion when it comes to pixels and DPI's and their difference, and it would not matter if either the DPI or Pixel output is being used, it's just two different types of measurements/calculations, the output results will be identical if the Pixel / DPI ratio is as well. The calculation above hopefully helps too.

  • If you want an image for print then dpi alone isn't enough, the image will also have to be CMYK and not RGB. Printing an RGB image for your own use is fine but if you're going to be professionally printing it in the likes of a brochure, book etc then it has to be CMYK.

    Additionally, the CMYK profile you choose will be dependant on your location/printer/paper stock, you can read more here: http://www.ne14design.co.uk/articles/which-cmyk-profile.htm


    So no matter what, you'll be editing the images in Photoshop (or similar) in which case you'll be setting the dpi at the same time as you change its profile.

  • I must respectfully disagree with Paul. You can print renderings your whole career and never touch CMYK. Even for brochure printing, many shops accept RGB now.

    For sure, but if you are a person who is realllllly concerned about their color science in physical printing, CMYK is probably "necessary."


    Regarding DPI, I fall in the camp that doesn't believe DPI needs to be absolutely perfect for large scale prints- though it's certainly helpful. There's just too many other factors to consider first. You can print a billboard at low DPI and it'll probably be fine, as the viewer is so far away, for example. PLENTY of discussion on this in the photography world where it applies most. It's sort of like discussing megapixels in camera vs image quality.

    So no matter what, you'll be editing the images in Photoshop (or similar) in which case you'll be setting the dpi at the same time as you change its profile.


    To Paul's point- whatever Enscape outputs should be run through Photoshop- to which you'd apply whatever profile and resolution you want. The point would be more about what the client expects and what you can provide.

  • For sure, but if you are a person who is realllllly concerned about their color science in physical printing, CMYK is probably "necessary."

    Never met that dude. We only use CMYK when a print shop requires it. I only mentioned it in an effort to keep newbs from waiting hours of their time. CMYK is not something a typical Enscape user needs to worry about until told they need to worry about it.

  • Never met that dude. We only use CMYK when a print shop requires it. I only mentioned it in an effort to keep newbs from waiting hours of their time. CMYK is not something a typical Enscape user needs to worry about until told they need to worry about it.

    Go browse some photography forums around the web lol . Which is why I put necessary in "" quotes "" . Sounds like a big time sink to me.

  • (in one case needed a 3x4 meters (9,8x13,12foot) and need to answer to client about limits of this plug-in) ... For this reason I renew the request for a 300dpi option, that is an oportunity more, for all user of our beloved plugin.

    No one is printing a 13ft wide image at 300dpi. That's like 46,000 pixels wide. Some image formats start to crap out around 16,000 pixels wide. Enscape maxes out at 8192 pixels, about 27 inches at 300 dpi.... so if that is your target, you can't generate anything remotely large-format with Enscape.


    100dpi for large-format prints is plenty, 50dpi for billboards. I would need an extremely specific use case to ever render more than 8k. In the past when I have had printers ask for "300 dpi" I have literally just up-sampled images in Photoshop to create a larger file with no more useful information. But it gets them the magic "300 dpi' they think they need.

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    Always thought this was a great video about this topic.

  • Changing the resolution of an image is not difficult at all. What was previously impossible to do can now be done on your phone using one simple program. I'm talking about programs like https://play.google.com/store/…om.movavi.mobile.picverse. I recently started using Picverse Photo Editor and it is one of the best programs I have ever used. It has all the features you need and is completely free.