Higher DPI value in Designer

[Chul]

Can anyone tell me what I need to do so i can keep the width I need (600 pixels) without using 72 dpi only? I need to have a document with that exact width, but I'd rather have a higher dpi if possible.

Any help will be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

[Mark Oehlschlager]

Good question.

In Photo, one can go to the Image Resize command and uncheck the Resample option before changing the DPI, which will preserve the pixel dimensions even as it changes the ratio of pixels to linear inches.

In Designer, there is no option to uncheck/disengage Resampling.

If you've set up a document that is exactly 600 x 600px with an initial DPI setting of 72 pixels per inch and you wish to change the DPI setting to 300 pixels per inch, in the Document Setup dialog box you must make sure that the Document Units are set to Pixels – NOT Inches or Millimeters or any other physical, real-world, linear measurement. If your Document Units are set to pixels, you can change the DPI setting from 72 to 300 and your pixel dimensions will be preserved. The only change will be to the ratio of screen pixels to linear inches/millimeters on a printed output.

On the other hand, if you have Document Units set to inches or millimeters in the Document Setup dialog box, and then you change the DPI value from 72 to 300, Designer will resample the pixel data (in this case upwards, increasing the total number of pixels per linear inch/millimeter such that your new document pixel dimensions will be 2,500 x 2,500 px rather than your original 600 x 600 px).

If you want to preserve your pixel dimensions while changing the DPI in the Document Setup dialog box, make sure your Document Units are set to pixels.

[thomaso]

[Chul]

Thanks to both of you for your replies!

Mark,  I thought that was the way it should work, but wasn't sure. I actually had tried to just do image resize in Photo but then it crashed on me. Which means that this morning I'll just start over  & do it the right way from the start now that I know that will work.        Thanks again, the explanation was very helpful!

[Chul]

I'm sorry, but it doesn't seem to work that way. Or maybe I'm still doing something wrong? Here's how I did it: I created a new document with Publisher. Set the document units to pixels. Page width is at 600 px & height at 800 px. DPI I set to 300. Then I was adding text to the document & discovered that at 10.5 pt, it looks huge. It's almost like my document size would only be set for a few inches. Any advice??

[Dan C]

The formula used for conversion here is Pixels ÷ DPI = Inches. This means your document at 600px x 800px @300dpi will measure 2" x 2.667"

May I ask why you require a document at 600px? regardless of the DPI in use this is a relatively small size for most publications.

[Chul]

I'm really confused now. How will the pixel width hold out if you can change dpi and that basically will determine the width??

Sure, I'm designing it for an E-Blast. And according my google searches that's the desired width?

[Dan C]

I recommend checking out the following Spotlight article on understanding DPI, as this will explain it much better than I can! https://affinityspotlight.com/article/understanding-dpi/

Thanks for letting me know, I would have thought that a larger size than this would have been more desirable - however I've never created nor sent an E-blast, so I'm certainly not the authoritative figure for this - apologies 

[Chul]

That helps. Thanks!

Not a problem. Thanks for your prompt responses!

[Mark Oehlschlager]

@Chul

The reason that your 10.5 point type appears large to you on your canvas is because at 300 DPI (actually PPI) your canvas dimension translated into inches is 2 inches wide by 2.67 inches tall. (600 pixels ÷ 300 Pixels Per Inch = 2 inches; 800 pixels ÷ 300 Pixels Per Inch = 2.67 inches.) Also, points as a unit of measurement are a fixed unit of measurement just as inches and millimeters are. Traditionally, typographers and printers measured type size in terms of points, and there are 72 points to the linear inch. So, 12 point type (the distance from the lowest point of a descender like the tail of a "y" to the highest point of an ascender like the vertical stem of a "d") would take up a vertical space of 1/6 of an inch (12/72). So, on your 2" x 2.67" canvas, your 10.5 pt type takes up just over 1/8" vertically, from descender to ascender.

As a side note, DPI (Dots Per Inch) is incorrectly used by many, including the Affinity developers. They conflate the concepts of DPI (Dots Per Inch) with PPI (Pixels Per Inch). True DPI (Dots Per Inch) is a ratio of printer's dots per inch: the number of tiny specks of ink per inch laid down by an offset, laser or inkjet printer. To add to the confusion, the web and app development industry has redefined DPI to mean "Device Pixels Per Inch". Whereas early computer monitors adopted a pixel density of 72 pixels per inch, contemporary monitors and handheld displays have radically increased their pixel densities to upwards of 400 pixels per inch. And web and app developers have been forced to draw distinctions between "device pixels" (the actual physical pixels of a display) and "display pixels" (the arbitrary fixed dimension for design and layout purposes, which is assumed to be 1/96 of an inch).  

Having said all that, you should just interpret "DPI" in the Affinity user interface to mean "PPI", because what's really being described is a ratio of Pixels Per Inch.

If you are preparing raster art for high-quality, commercial offset printing, the rule of thumb is to prepare your art with a pixel density of 300 PPI (Pixels Per Inch). This provides the print service provider enough pixel data for his image setting equipment to translate your electronic imagery into much higher resolution printer's plates (C, M, Y, and K), where the density of ink dots (DPI or Dots Per Inch) can be as high as 2,400 dots per inch.

If you are preparing raster art for a desktop laser or inkjet printer, you can get away with pixel densities as low as 150 PPI.

When it comes to preparing artwork for electronic displays, which come in a maddening variety of device pixel densities, designers are encourages to build three versions of their artwork: @1x (where art is to be displayed on older desktop monitors with a device pixel density of 96 PPI), @2x (where art is to be displayed on higher resolution displays with device pixel densities of close to 192 PPI), and @3x (where art is to be displayed on even higher resolution displays with device pixel densities of close to 288 PPI or higher). Typically the coding of web pages and applications will determine the pixel density of the device being used, and will display the appropriate version of your art (@1x, @2x, or @3x). From the designer or layout artist's point of view, he/she would indicate the intended display size in terms of points, which by modern convention assumes a display pixel ratio of 96 PPI. 

So, for electronic display, if your are creating vector art, to begin, assume you are creating art for a desktop monitor.  with a pixel density resolution of 96 PPI (or DPI in Affinity terms). If you want your artwork to appear to be 1" x 1", create your art to fit within a canvas size of 96 px by 96 px. That will be your @1x version. Use the Affinity Export Persona to automatically generate the @2x and @3X versions in addition to your @1x version.

If you're creating raster art, you'll have to work backwards from large to small. For an image that's meant to display at 1" x 1", build your art on a @3x canvas size – in this case 288 px by 288 px. Then you can export copies for a @2x size (192 px by 192 px) and an @1x size (96 px by 96 px).

I hope that clarifies some issues, and doesn't overwhelm you.

 

 

 

 

[Chul]

That definitely clears a lot of the confusion I had about the DPI. Esp, the explanation that Affinity's DPI is really PPI. I'm curious- did you ever design an E-Blast for someone? I'm asking because I thought you might be able to give me some advice on what its width should be. This is (obviously) a first for me, so I'm struggling to get everything the way it should be.

Thanks so much for all the time you spent in explaining! Don't worry, it was not all in vain. It looks a lot clearer to me now!

[Mark Oehlschlager]

@Chul

--------

Postscript

To simplify, I should just add that the PPI ratio (or Affinity's DPI) really only has meaning for those preparing raster art for print. The key measurement for image quality in print is the ratio of pixels per inch on the page.

For artwork intended for electronic display, the key measurement is simply the pixel dimensions (e.g., 600px by 800px). If Google tells you that they want you to prepare your art for a 600px by 800 px canvas, that's all you really need to know. You're not preparing this for print.

On the other hand, when preparing raster art for the Web or mobile apps, I suppose you could make use of Affinity's DPI setting in the following way: 1) set up your canvas with your intended display dimensions in inches and the DPI setting at 300. This will become your @3x art. Then you can create down sampled versions of that art where a DPI setting of 200 will work for your @2x art, and a DPI setting of 100 will work for your @1x art. These roughly correspond to 288 PPI, 192 PPI and 96 PPI.

[Chul]

4 minutes ago, Mark Oehlschlager said:

To simplify, I should just add that the PPI ratio (or Affinity's DPI) really only has meaning for those preparing raster art for print. The key measurement for image quality in print is the ratio of pixels per inch on the page.

For artwork intended for electronic display, the key measurement is simply the pixel dimensions (e.g., 600px by 800px). If Google tells you that they want you to prepare your art for a 600px by 800 px canvas, that's all you really need to know. You're not preparing this for print.

Makes complete sense. Thanks for the clarification, it puts my mind at ease.

[srg]

1 hour ago, Mark Oehlschlager said:

@Chul

The reason that your 10.5 point type appears large to you on your canvas is because at 300 DPI (actually PPI) your canvas dimension translated into inches is 2 inches wide by 2.67 inches tall. (600 pixels ÷ 300 Pixels Per Inch = 2 inches; 800 pixels ÷ 300 Pixels Per Inch = 2.67 inches.) Also, points as a unit of measurement are a fixed unit of measurement just as inches and millimeters are. Traditionally, typographers and printers measured type size in terms of points, and there are 72 points to the linear inch. So, 12 point type (the distance from the lowest point of a descender like the tail of a "y" to the highest point of an ascender like the vertical stem of a "d") would take up a vertical space of 1/6 of an inch (12/72). So, on your 2" x 2.67" canvas, your 10.5 pt type takes up just over 1/8" vertically, from descender to ascender.

As a side note, DPI (Dots Per Inch) is incorrectly used by many, including the Affinity developers. They conflate the concepts of DPI (Dots Per Inch) with PPI (Pixels Per Inch). True DPI (Dots Per Inch) is a ratio of printer's dots per inch: the number of tiny specks of ink per inch laid down by an offset, laser or inkjet printer. To add to the confusion, the web and app development industry has redefined DPI to mean "Device Pixels Per Inch". Whereas early computer monitors adopted a pixel density of 72 pixels per inch, contemporary monitors and handheld displays have radically increased their pixel densities to upwards of 400 pixels per inch. And web and app developers have been forced to draw distinctions between "device pixels" (the actual physical pixels of a display) and "display pixels" (the arbitrary fixed dimension for design and layout purposes, which is assumed to be 1/96 of an inch).  

Having said all that, you should just interpret "DPI" in the Affinity user interface to mean "PPI", because what's really being described is a ratio of Pixels Per Inch.

If you are preparing raster art for high-quality, commercial offset printing, the rule of thumb is to prepare your art with a pixel density of 300 PPI (Pixels Per Inch). This provides the print service provider enough pixel data for his image setting equipment to translate your electronic imagery into much higher resolution printer's plates (C, M, Y, and K), where the density of ink dots (DPI or Dots Per Inch) can be as high as 2,400 dots per inch.

If you are preparing raster art for a desktop laser or inkjet printer, you can get away with pixel densities as low as 150 PPI.

When it comes to preparing artwork for electronic displays, which come in a maddening variety of device pixel densities, designers are encourages to build three versions of their artwork: @1x (where art is to be displayed on older desktop monitors with a device pixel density of 96 PPI), @2x (where art is to be displayed on higher resolution displays with device pixel densities of close to 192 PPI), and @3x (where art is to be displayed on even higher resolution displays with device pixel densities of close to 288 PPI or higher). Typically the coding of web pages and applications will determine the pixel density of the device being used, and will display the appropriate version of your art (@1x, @2x, or @3x). From the designer or layout artist's point of view, he/she would indicate the intended display size in terms of points, which by modern convention assumes a display pixel ratio of 96 PPI. 

So, for electronic display, if your are creating vector art, to begin, assume you are creating art for a desktop monitor.  with a pixel density resolution of 96 PPI (or DPI in Affinity terms). If you want your artwork to appear to be 1" x 1", create your art to fit within a canvas size of 96 px by 96 px. That will be your @1x version. Use the Affinity Export Persona to automatically generate the @2x and @3X versions in addition to your @1x version.

If you're creating raster art, you'll have to work backwards from large to small. For an image that's meant to display at 1" x 1", build your art on a @3x canvas size – in this case 288 px by 288 px. Then you can export copies for a @2x size (192 px by 192 px) and an @1x size (96 px by 96 px).

I hope that clarifies some issues, and doesn't overwhelm you.

Thanks for the clarification. The confusion between DPI and PPI by the AP developers is really mind boggling since high quality photo printing should be their first priority and that confusion, unless I am still missing something, makes difficult to embed a simple DPI value to send to the printer in a AP file.