Exporting images 300 DPI are exported at 96 DPI?

[websavvy]

Hello,

I am working on a project that requires the images I create must be at least 250 DPI, preferably 300 DPI.

When I export, I am specifying 300 DPI, but the resulting image is only 96.

Is there a setting somewhere that is causing them to revert back?

Any information or advice is welcome.

Thanks!

[mwenz]

How are you exporting, to what format and for what purpose (print)? And...what are you checking the DPI in?

In any case, if the dpi is set to 300, that is what Xara exports. For print, I use CMYK TIFF. For web, it should be at screen resolution (96 dpi).

Take care, Mike

[gwpriester]

If you import an image that you have exported into Xara, depending on your settings, it may import at 96dpi but the pixel dimensions are probably correct.

Reduce the image proportionately at 32%, the dpi will be 300dpi and you can check the physical size.

[websavvy]

Well and that is partly what had me stumped- I was selecting 300 dpi- but the resulting image was still 96. But I was able to export a tiff that was 300.

Thanks!

[websavvy]

That is good advice that I am going to store for later! Thank you!

[mwenz]

The type of image export (JPG, PNG, TIFF) doesn't matter per se. But for print, because I use CMYK, I always export using TIFF. JPG compression can cause artifacts even though one can have a CMYK JPG, the degradation is unwanted.

One clue in the export dialog box would be the pixel dimensions. Cycle through the various DPI settings and you will see the effect on the dims.

To follow-on Gary's post, DPI is relatively non-important. Pixel dimensions are. If you do import an image that will go back out to another image export, you can see the effective PPI in the status bar when you resize an imported image. So for instance, the banner that I should part of was exported for this exercise at 300 dpi. If I import that image and make it double its pixel dimensioned size, it will have an effective DPI of 150. Conversely, if I take that same image and shrink it to half its pixel dimensions, the effective DPI will be 600.

So when you import images that will go back out to another image, make sure to check the effective DPI of these images. In general, one doesn't want to increase their size appreciably if they are already reported as 300 DPI inside Xara. One can get away with lowering an image's effective DPI (by increasing its size on screen) to around 250 DPI without any/much degradation going back out to an image destined for print.

Take care, Mike