Dpi?!?!

[Scarlett]

I uploaded a very large jpg to a mug printing company for my mates birthday. Even though the size of the image was 5120 x 2880 the picture on the mug came out blurry. The company say it is because the dpi was only 96 and the recommended amount was 300. I have no idea what this means or how I could have found out the dpi of my image before uploading it. Any ideas?!

[FrogNog]

If you right click on an open image and select properties, then look at the advanced options, it will tell you the dpi (dots per inch) of your image.

[bhg481]

Assuming you are using Windows, open the directory containing your photos.
Change the "view" to "details".
Open "Choose Details" and select "dimensions".
The pixel-size of your photos will then be displayed.

[bhg481]

Frognogs system is simpler - it even gives you dpi.

[karatant]

I think it means "dots per inch" dpi, the more dots in a square inch, the more detail is shown. they've used what you provided them with and their job is done. they could of said it would look better with a better format but they aren't compelled to do so. they've faithfully completed their job using the materials you provided them with. I'm sorry to hear your story- but you have the chance to make a better thing of it next time (maybe Christmas is closer)good luck Scarlett

[GustaveH]

It sounds like the printing company have cocked up.

5120 x 2880 @ 96dpi is 135.47cm x 76.2cm.

The printing company can very easily change the dpi to 300dpi and that will scale the image smaller to 43.35cm x 24.38cm. I assume the image on the mug was much smaller than that.

The file will be about 40mb. What could have happened is your email programme may have over compressed or even reduced the quality in order to get the file size small enough to email.

Services like DropBox or WeTransfer let you send large files without changing their quality.

[GustaveH]

Out of curiosity, do you know the file size in Mb of the image you sent?

[TheChair]

I'm surprised that the Mug company didn't specify a range of suitable sizes, and the preferred DPI setting.

Even at 300 DPI, the image you sent would be around 16 inches, which at a guess is around 3 or 4 times the size of the the image area on the mug.

[Scarlett]

The attached pic to the email was 2.4mb which is a bit weird, isn't it?

[Gromit]

Yes it is low. Looks like it must have been compressed too far and that has caused a fuzzy image.

[bhg481]

GustavH has an interesting point. Why don't you email the same photo to yourself and see what the size is when you receive it?