All right, grasshoppers, print this out because it’s going to save you all kinds of time and trouble. Oh, and money. How many times have you been asked to send in a photo, “300dpi” or better… Thus leading you on a hunt to a) figure out what 300 dpi is, whether or not your photos possess this elusive quality (probably not; right-click and select Properties and you’ll see) and c) how to get your hands on one without bugging your publisher’s PR rep yet again….
People will tell you that you have to have “Photoshop,” an expensive RAM-hog program, in order to edit your digital photos. You don’t. You just need to go to www.irfanview.com and download their swift little free program. To convert a shot to 300dpi, right-click the photo. Select “Open With” and then select Irfanview. On the menu bar, select Image–>Resize/Resample and in the box that comes up, change the DPI to 300. You might also want to reduce the size in pixels, too. Et voila! Your photo is ready for print.
72 comments
Comments feed for this article
May 12, 2013 at 3:30 pm
Fatima
Thank you very much, it was really helpful
many thanks
May 5, 2013 at 7:10 am
Andy
I’m just going to give it a go…. many many thanks – I was just looking at Photoshop and it was going to be about £500!
Thank you so much again – I will bookmark your site
May 2, 2013 at 12:07 am
Cherie
Appreciating the commitment you put into your site and in depth information
you present. It’s great to come across a blog every once in a while that isn’t the
same old rehashed material. Excellent read! I’ve bookmarked your site and I’m including your RSS feeds to my Google account.
April 15, 2013 at 2:24 am
Simone
Brilliant tip, thanks!
March 23, 2013 at 4:51 pm
Dragonwyst
Life saver!!! Now I can get on with self-publishing
March 7, 2013 at 11:59 pm
SHABNAM
THANKS A LOT FOR YR EXACT AND CORRECT INFORMATION, THAT WAS WHAT I WANTED TO UPLOAD MY PHOTO
February 12, 2013 at 7:34 am
Abi Cannons
Thank you SO much.
January 9, 2013 at 6:54 pm
http://tinyurl.com/catlash45093
What precisely seriously moved you to write “We need a 300dpi photo The View From Here”?
Iseriously liked it! Regards -Lavonne
January 8, 2013 at 8:00 am
John Cameron
Thank you for this little gem of information, exactly what I needed
November 26, 2012 at 2:17 pm
Joan Hinchcliffe
Thank you for this. I couldn’t afford an artist for my book cover so I used this to convert to 300 dpi. Thanks again. Joan
November 16, 2012 at 6:39 pm
Peggy S Baker
Bless you my child!
October 22, 2012 at 4:34 am
Asker
thank you! it really helped. I entered the details, followed what you said and simply put me in a better spot in my job. So thanks a ton.
October 17, 2012 at 6:45 pm
Gina
Thank you for this blog! It totally helped.
September 26, 2012 at 8:34 am
Yahia Ehab
Man…you are the best!!!
September 3, 2012 at 11:29 pm
colleen
thank you for posting this!!
August 10, 2012 at 2:02 am
HAKAN
thanks for your article – most helpfull thank you
July 10, 2012 at 10:40 pm
Haili
Thank you soooo much! It drove me crazy until I found your message – job done in minutes.
March 28, 2012 at 1:15 pm
Val
Thank you so much for this post, it has been a great help to me
March 28, 2012 at 10:50 am
nel
its looking good, many thanks, however when you say “you might want to reduce the size in pixels too” – what does this mean and what do I reduce it to?
January 23, 2012 at 7:16 pm
Wanye
Thank you SOOOO much for this. I had a Mac and was still able to use it after downloading another software called Winebottler. This really saved me, thanks against.
December 27, 2011 at 3:46 pm
Why I love authors « my life in words
[...] I stumbled upon this when I googled “300 dpi.” I wasn’t sure what it meant, I know it’s a photography term, and I still don’t, but at least I got a laugh out of it- see “We need a 300 dpi photo…” [...]
December 15, 2011 at 2:39 am
Ian
Thanks so much for this!
October 13, 2011 at 8:04 pm
Michelle
THAAAAAAANK YOOOOOOOOOU.
October 6, 2011 at 2:41 pm
Mary - Photographer
Wow! Thank you, Susan. I am going to download this program now. I’ve never heard about it before and I like everything about pictures and photo editing.
September 7, 2011 at 4:15 am
Jamie
Sorry to say it but using this technique is pretty much useless.
You may have changed the resolution to 300dpi but by doing this you only lowered the quality of the picture. If you make a 72 dpi image 300 dpi and print it you will see the quality is very low.
August 28, 2011 at 7:37 am
Nityanand
what is mean by 300 dpi & extention of this file for signature scaning?
August 26, 2011 at 9:45 am
DG Sandru
Thanks Susan that was very helpful. Most digital pictures have the pixels sized for a comparative of 72 DPI in print. So, going from a large pixel picture to a book size photo is a matter of compression. My question is how to get an 8 Meg picture of a painting of 24in x 48in to print at 300 DPI in the same as the paining?
October 10, 2012 at 2:16 pm
shell
to downsize you will usually increast your dpi which is good… the higher your dpi the clearer the quality… (you can also have too much, which is kinda the same as zooming in…. all products are different. if you want it to hang on your wall, i would suggest going to costco (or your fav pic printing place) they will help you set to the correct dpi for what you are trying to accomplish (usually no charge)
July 19, 2011 at 11:19 pm
Living in Alaska
Thank you Susan for sharing this information. I too found you on Google. After I read the useful post, I looked at the rest of the site and realized that I recognized your name because I have two of your books in my soon to read pile
.
July 20, 2011 at 8:31 am
susanwiggs
Yay! Glad the post was helpful. Hope you enjoy the books!
July 8, 2011 at 6:52 am
Ida
Wow by a slim chance, nearly giving up already, I “stumbled” across your site. Needed 300dpi photos for travel catalogues and am under time constraint. Thank you and cannot stop looking at your site with all other interesting comments etc.
Ida from Namibia
June 19, 2011 at 3:10 am
Juliet Madison
This is just the information I was looking for!! After searching through so called ‘techy sites’ and not finding any easy to understand info or an easy way of doing this (for someone who doesn’t have photoshop), I found your post. Interestingly, I’m reading one of your books right now! Thanks Susan
June 16, 2011 at 10:21 am
cyn
yay!! thank you so much for this! i was major confused when asked to remit my picture at 300 dpi, and even though i still don’t fully understand it, lol, at least i can just resize the picture to the size that they want. =)
May 18, 2011 at 3:55 pm
Rachele
Thank you very much for posting this information! It was truly helpful!!!
May 1, 2011 at 1:42 pm
Robyn Post
Susan,
YOU ARE A LIFESAVER!!! Working on a book for which I thought about 100 photos were unusable because the publishing house said what I had was too small. You have no idea how happy I am. Thank you SO much for taking the time to write about this. I will pay it forward and pass this along.
Thank you again and best wishes in your endeavors!
P.S. Your name should be prominently on this site, no? It took me a while to figure out whose site this was!
May 1, 2011 at 3:52 am
colwyn
wow.. u made it sound so simple..
the first time i have confidence without tryin it tht it wil work…
March 18, 2011 at 1:45 pm
Joseph Palm
Thanks. A blissfully simple solution.
March 14, 2011 at 10:42 pm
Sp
This was a great Google find – thanks for this tool. It worked a treat!
March 7, 2011 at 11:13 am
PIX N' TRAY
Thanks a Million for this invaluable information! I needed to convert my product photos to 300 dpi, for inclusion in the May 2011 issue of Inventors Digest Magazine. This post was GREAT help!
February 1, 2011 at 12:53 am
Dhanya
thanks a lot for this information.
January 17, 2011 at 4:31 am
sprintexec
Hi Susan,
Thank you for a concise helpful post on a topic that has for far too long been a bugbear of mine!
I noticed that irfanview is a windows only programme which is fine. However I would like to know if there is a similar application for us linux/mac users?
Kind regards, Andy
P.S. I enjoyed looking at the photo you have chosen to illustrate the item.
November 11, 2010 at 7:34 pm
Gayle De Faveri
Thanks Susan, you help and made it so easy. Wish everything in life was this easy.
October 31, 2010 at 9:59 am
terry b
i was up alnight trying to get an ad created before deadline, just to find out the next morning the file was not large enough to print. they gave me one more day to get this done. frantic, i goopled 300 dpi and came across your site. i downloaded this file and IT WORKED!!! now i’m good to go and my ad is going to look great. i do not usually leave feedback, but this was sooo important. thank you so much, terry b
October 8, 2010 at 7:25 am
Karen
I missed several opportunities to have my products in major magazines because I didn’t have 300dpi photos available. This is wonderful. THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
July 23, 2010 at 10:49 am
Tess
Thanks for this – I am a digital newbie and needed this information quickly. Your post made the most sense and was the most useful. Thanks for the software tip, too!
June 17, 2010 at 9:25 am
Derek
Thank you so very much…!!!
June 17, 2010 at 5:29 am
A.c
Im confused about the pixel bit. and how many mega pixels should ur camera have if u wanna print it huuuge like billboard size, in 300dpi
i have a deadline and would appriciate help from any1
October 10, 2012 at 2:22 pm
shell
contact the billboard company you are leasing the space from; they should be able to guide you along… if not look up some of the other b.b. company’s and ask what you need there…
June 8, 2010 at 7:44 am
leslie
yeah, i didnt realize this was just for PC, need it for a MAC-oh well!
May 1, 2010 at 2:47 am
Aditya
thank you so much, I was suddenly asked by a magazine to send them few photos in 300dpi and I did a Google, saw your post as the first search result. Got my answers instantly. Thank you again! – Adi (www.perfios.com)
April 21, 2010 at 10:43 am
Noel
Thanks so much, same as everyone else here….googled and found your tip….thanks alot….once I downloaded the program it was easy to change the DPI….
March 11, 2010 at 9:23 am
Marie
YOU ARE AWESOME!!
January 1, 2010 at 2:39 pm
Shando
Thank you soooooooooooo much!! Trying to submit to fotoblur magazine!!
November 15, 2009 at 3:19 am
Peter V
Thank you so much! Very very very awesome
October 21, 2009 at 9:32 am
Hector
Do they have this program for MACs??? If not can n e one recommend a similar Program for a mac? I need to convert low res to high res.
August 31, 2009 at 10:31 am
Emily
thank you so much- invaluable information!!!
August 15, 2009 at 8:45 am
Mary
Thank you so much! I had to resize a photo for my dad to be put in magazines all over the place and I was stressing about 300dpi as well. Found you through google and your help was much appreciated! (=
May 31, 2009 at 9:58 pm
What are you looking for? « The View From Here
[...] how to 300dpi [...]
March 29, 2009 at 2:11 pm
Ellie
Here again another Mac- artist person- that is asked to “send in photos in 300 dpi format”. I use a Mac OS X (Year old ) I need suggestions please, and thank you for your website.
Ellie
March 20, 2009 at 7:28 pm
chris
thanks for your article – most helpfull thank you
February 11, 2009 at 1:26 am
danny baio
hi there
My name is danny, i have a 3d render from a presentaion , which i need in 300 dpi, to print leaflets can this be done with this software
all i have is the video screen shot can this be done ?
thank you for yoru time
danny
January 24, 2009 at 6:13 pm
Amy
You have saved my life. Well, maybe that’s a little melodramatic, but I’ve got a submission deadline and was freaking out about this 300 dpi thing… also found you through Google… thank you so much!!
November 26, 2008 at 1:44 pm
ami
Thanks for this excellent post. I was entering an amateur photography contest and did a Google search for “300dpi”; I’m so amateur I didn’t even know what that meant! It saved me a lot of time & headache, I’m sure. It was much appreciated, over a year from its original post date.
Thanks again,
Ami
October 15, 2008 at 11:10 am
Amellia Hansen
Well, this is a perfect time to print this. I have heard of this on and off in the last few years and never seem to know what/how to do it. It’s worth printing and putting in my “I don’t know what to do with this” file! Now, it will just be a matter of finding this paper when I need it.
ThAnKs for sharing!
October 12, 2008 at 10:07 am
elik
thanks
or in Hebrew: TODA
June 3, 2008 at 6:00 pm
Eldon
Thank you, thank you!! Just sent a photo for inclusion in the Aug. issue of South West Art. Was like totally easy!!
May 23, 2008 at 5:39 am
Mike in Morocco
You do need to qualify that IrfanView is a Windows-oriented application. This is not a problem with those who have Macs that are now Intel-based, but they still have to have XP or Vista to use it. FYI and to cut to the chase for those of us interested in the basic requirements…
September 7, 2007 at 12:00 pm
FatherRay
Ifranview has been my only photo maniputlatioon tool for 3-4 years. I find that it does everything I have asked it to do.
It is one of those rare programs that works better than I expected it too …and you can’t beat the price!
September 7, 2007 at 9:05 am
Wendy Roberts
Oh this sounds almost too good to be true. Thanks for sharing!
September 7, 2007 at 5:52 am
susanwiggs
Terri, I think they adjust automatically. The resize/resample option brings up a dialogue box that has lots of options to click. It’s pretty handy and user-friendly.
September 6, 2007 at 8:24 pm
Terri Farrell
I meant to say silly question.
September 6, 2007 at 8:23 pm
Terri Farrell
Sounds simple enough.
Just curious though. . .this is probably a silyy question.
Ah, do the pixels go in size by small, medium and large
Or, is there a exact percentage you have to enter in order
to reduce them.