dpi Do they make a difference

b13171@hotmail.com

My HP printer must be replaced. At the suggestion of people on this
site, I am going to purchase either an Epson or Canon. Primarily I
use the printer for home office work as well as printing my photos and
for crafts.
Both companies make all in ones which I would prefer. These have
dpis of 5670 x 1440.
Canon has a photo printer with dpis of 9600 x 2400. How much of a
difference in quality of my photos would the Canon photo printer.
Or, for example is this similar to the number of megapixels in a
camera. (I have a Fuji w/5 megapixels-- a friend has one with 7- I
can't tell the difference in printed photos even when blown up to 18"
x 22")

THanks Liz

Barry Watzman

At the levels you are talking about, DPI doesn't even have to be
considered. It's totally meaningless.

wrote:
> My HP printer must be replaced. At the suggestion of people on this
> site, I am going to purchase either an Epson or Canon. Primarily I
> use the printer for home office work as well as printing my photos and
> for crafts.
> Both companies make all in ones which I would prefer. These have
> dpis of 5670 x 1440.
> Canon has a photo printer with dpis of 9600 x 2400. How much of a
> difference in quality of my photos would the Canon photo printer.
> Or, for example is this similar to the number of megapixels in a
> camera. (I have a Fuji w/5 megapixels-- a friend has one with 7- I
> can't tell the difference in printed photos even when blown up to 18"
> x 22")
>
> THanks Liz
>

Chuck

A concern with any ink jet printer is the cost of ink. Epson has recently
implemented a scheme that can prevent the use of non Epson refills.
Canon generally has not chipped ink tanks or issued printer firmware updates
that lock the user into Canon inks.

The maximum dpi of 9600x 2400 (or whatever) is more of a yes you do and no
you don't type of number. Generally, the printer driver makes the decision
as to the actual printed resolution by looking at the user defined & paper
settings, and processing the picture to be printed with proprietary
algorithms inside the driver. This allows the driver to blend & overprint
dots as needed.

Basically, the DPI advertised number is gotten to by using the horizontal
and vertical mechanical resolution, and the number and pattern of the ink
nozzles.

I don't want to get into cameras. To me, the major use for higher resolution
cameras is to facilitate cropping.


<> wrote in message
news:1187718791.576839.182400@w3g2000hsg.googlegro ups.com...
> My HP printer must be replaced. At the suggestion of people on this
> site, I am going to purchase either an Epson or Canon. Primarily I
> use the printer for home office work as well as printing my photos and
> for crafts.
> Both companies make all in ones which I would prefer. These have
> dpis of 5670 x 1440.
> Canon has a photo printer with dpis of 9600 x 2400. How much of a
> difference in quality of my photos would the Canon photo printer.
> Or, for example is this similar to the number of megapixels in a
> camera. (I have a Fuji w/5 megapixels-- a friend has one with 7- I
> can't tell the difference in printed photos even when blown up to 18"
> x 22")
>
> THanks Liz
>

Barry Watzman

Resolution has become pretty much meaningless as far a printers are
concerned.

Remember, you are spraying a liquid droplet at paper. When the droplet
hits the [porous] paper, it spreads. The idea that there is any
meaningful difference JUST because you can center the droplets 1/2400th
of an inch left or right or up or down is pretty meaningless .... once
the droplet hits the paper and spreads, at these kinds of "thousands per
inch" dimensions, it's make a mark that obliterates multiple pixel
positions anyway.

Meanwhile, there are other factors .... not even mentioned in a
resolution spec .... that have far more impact on the appearance of the
paper. What is the droplet size (picoliters)? WIs the droplet round or
oblong (in all 3 dimensions ... depth dimension also)? How well defined
are it's edges? How viscous is the ink? How much will it spread
between when it hits the paper and when it stops spreading? How does it
interact with ink of OTHER colors when droplets of different colors overlap?

Once a printer's resolution reaches 2,400, or probably even 1,200 dots
per inch, these things all matter more than the "resolution".
Resolution mattered back in the days when it was low (below 600 or 300
dpi). But at today's levels, of all of a printer's parameters, it's
probably the least significant (however, manufacturers don't give specs
for these other things ... indeed, things like droplet shape (in 3
dimensions) are hard to specify).



Chuck wrote:
> A concern with any ink jet printer is the cost of ink. Epson has recently
> implemented a scheme that can prevent the use of non Epson refills.
> Canon generally has not chipped ink tanks or issued printer firmware updates
> that lock the user into Canon inks.
>
> The maximum dpi of 9600x 2400 (or whatever) is more of a yes you do and no
> you don't type of number. Generally, the printer driver makes the decision
> as to the actual printed resolution by looking at the user defined & paper
> settings, and processing the picture to be printed with proprietary
> algorithms inside the driver. This allows the driver to blend & overprint
> dots as needed.
>
> Basically, the DPI advertised number is gotten to by using the horizontal
> and vertical mechanical resolution, and the number and pattern of the ink
> nozzles.
>
> I don't want to get into cameras. To me, the major use for higher resolution
> cameras is to facilitate cropping.
>
>
> <> wrote in message
> news:1187718791.576839.182400@w3g2000hsg.googlegro ups.com...
>> My HP printer must be replaced. At the suggestion of people on this
>> site, I am going to purchase either an Epson or Canon. Primarily I
>> use the printer for home office work as well as printing my photos and
>> for crafts.
>> Both companies make all in ones which I would prefer. These have
>> dpis of 5670 x 1440.
>> Canon has a photo printer with dpis of 9600 x 2400. How much of a
>> difference in quality of my photos would the Canon photo printer.
>> Or, for example is this similar to the number of megapixels in a
>> camera. (I have a Fuji w/5 megapixels-- a friend has one with 7- I
>> can't tell the difference in printed photos even when blown up to 18"
>> x 22")
>>
>> THanks Liz
>>
>
>