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Optimum image resolution for user printing

SteveClaflin
Registered: Apr 28 2009
Posts: 4
Answered

I've been given a newsletter for our organization that seems very large (12 MB for 12 pages). There are a number of images in it, for example, the first one is 3500 * 2400 (approx), and prints at a width of 3.5 inches.

So my resolution for printing purposes is 1000 dpi. My laser printer says it can do 600 dpi, and I remember from my print creative days that a good rule of thumb was resolution would be 1.5 times the line screen. I would expect our users to have about the same quality of printer, but probably no better.

I see from http://www.acrobatusers.com/articles/2006/09/pdf_optimizer the recommendation:

"Try to leave color and grayscale-image resolution at a minimum of 144 dpi. At lower resolutions, print quality becomes seriously compromised on photographic images."

But, that implies that higher resolutions might be better.

I also remember that with line screens, you didn't want something close to the printer resolution, because that could introduce moire (sp?) patterns.

Would would a good recommendation for resolution be?

Also, I realize that this topic has probably been covered before, but a search for "acrobat optimum image resolution) yielded only the above page within the first three pages of results, so I thought it would be good to cover that ground in what hopefully would show up early in a search.

UVSAR
Expert
Registered: Oct 29 2008
Posts: 1357
If the newsletter is intended for print on personal machines, there's no point in going over 300dpi, and most users won't notice the difference between 144 and 300 unless they get out a microscope.

For screen display, 96dpi at 100% scaling is fine.
SteveClaflin
Registered: Apr 28 2009
Posts: 4
Thanks. I was leaning toward 300 dpi myself.