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.
15 comments
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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.
September 6, 2007 at 8:24 pm
Terri Farrell
I meant to say silly question.
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 7, 2007 at 9:05 am
Wendy Roberts
Oh this sounds almost too good to be true. Thanks for sharing!
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!
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…
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!!
October 12, 2008 at 10:07 am
elik
thanks
or in Hebrew: TODA
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!
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
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!!
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
March 20, 2009 at 7:28 pm
chris
thanks for your article – most helpfull thank you
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
May 31, 2009 at 9:58 pm
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