Best Resolution for Printing Photos

Photo resolution refers to the number of megapixels produced by a smartphone or digital camera’s sensor. In simple non-technical language, it defines the amount of detail or length a phone or digital camera can capture.

Duplicate photos are a nuisance. They will occupy valuable storage space, cause disorganization, and cost dearly on printing charges. Let’s fix them with PictureEcho, a software app that scans and deletes duplicate & similar photos using its smart algorithms.

Delete Duplicate Photos Using PictureEcho

PictureEcho is is distributed with verifiable digital signatures

Usually, the higher the megapixels of a camera, the better results it delivers. But again, it solely depends on the needs, requirements and profession of the individual. As a hobbyist, you can kick start with an affordable camera with lower megapixels. A 20 MP or 24 MP camera should be fine. A professional photographer may require an expensive camera with a better lens, sensor, and processor and made up of long-lasting, expensive material. A 50.6 MP or 61 MP camera is often recommended.

Why Does Pixels Per Inch (PPI) Matter in Photo Printing?

Pixels Per Inch (PPI) is an important term when it comes to printing your photos, and as such almost all photographers are aware about it and take it into consideration for high-quality photo printing. The more the image resolution, the larger the print size of the photo. For smooth color transition, most printers require a certain density of pixels.

Best Resolution for Photo Printing

Long answer short: 300 PPI

For standard printing, the PPI density begins from 150 PPI and grows further as you may need it. In the case of magazines, 1200 PPI is the ideal PPI density.

Typically, 300 PPI is considered a benchmark for good photo printing quality. Larger prints often require lowering the PPI or using complicated third-party tools. However, these third-party tools may impact the quality of your photo.

As an example, in order to print a 4*6 inch photo at 300 PPI, it can take around 1200*1800 pixels. For an 8*10 inch photo at 300 PPI, it can take around 2400*3000 pixels. We get this figure by multiplying the width and height of the photos in inches by 300 pixels. Your local printer shop technician often knows it and uses the right printer settings and right paper size. And even if they don’t, you should now be able to tell them to get the best outputs.

Tips for Getting Optimum PPI for Best Quality Photo for Printing

  • Specify Appropriate PPI Density: To get the optimum resolution while printing photos, you’ll need to specify the Pixels Per Inch (PPI). If you specify lower pixels, your printer will automatically fill up the page using adequate pixels. On the contrary, if you specify a very high number of pixels, your printer will shrink the image smaller and it will degrade the quality of the image. This is why it’s important to set the appropriate pixel density while printing your photos.
  • Use Sharpening Tools: You can also improve the quality of your image by using sharpening tools. Sharpening tools are more useful to get the best print results, rather than improve the quality of digital images stored on your device. Please note that while sharpening your image, you will need to zoom it to 100%.
  • Preserve Image Quality with PNG: Consider using the Portable Network Graphics (PNG) image format to preserve the image quality. You can modify images as many times as you want without worrying about the degradation of your image quality. Multiple edits won’t affect your image quality.
  • Strongly Avoid JPG: Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPG or JPEG) image type should be avoided to preserve your image quality. JPG is considered a destructive image format. The more you edit an image, the worst it gets. By the time you get to print that image, multiple layers have already been saved over each other which yields poor results. If you want to maintain pixel integrity while printing your photos, it’s best to avoid the JPG file format. JPG file format fares very poorly when it comes to maintaining pixel integrity, especially when you’ve specified extraordinarily higher pixel density.

Find & Delete Low/ High Resolution Duplicate Versions of your Photos

Now that you have finished printing your photos, it’s time to organize your photo library. Most often, as you import, download, copy and edit photos, it leads to a lot of duplication. Multiple copies of the images are located in different folders, and drives on your hard disk. This can be especially problematic as you run out of storage. Not just that, finding the right version of your photo also becomes a difficult job.

Thankfully, there are tools that allow you to dedupe duplicate photos and accordingly delete low or higher-resolution versions of those images. PictureEcho is one such tool that does its job perfectly.

  1. Download and install PictureEcho.
  2. Click on System Scan.
  3. Add the folder you want to scan for duplicate images by clicking on the Add Path option and selecting that folder.
  4. Do you wish to identify duplicates that are exactly similar in nature? If so, choose the Exact Match option. If you want to identify dupes that are visually similar in nature, select Similar Match. You can also change the similarity settings and level to get the best results.
  5. Click on Start Search.
  6. Once the scan finishes, you get a list of duplicate photo thumbnails. Each photo is grouped based on similarity.
  7. Use the Select Duplicates button, and choose one of the following options:
    • Retain low-resolution images in each group: Use this option to get rid of all high-resolution copies of the duplicate photos. This preserves the low-resolution images.
    • Retain high-resolution images in each group: Use this option to get rid of all low-resolution copies of the duplicate photos and preserve only high-resolution images.
  8. Click on Select Action and use the Permanently Delete option.

Vikas

Vikas is a technology enthusiast who loves writing articles on computers and technology. He writes on various topics related to software, software reviews, troubleshooting and tips & tricks to make people's digital lives better.