Ka2azman Loc: Tucson, Az

I understand that if just showing a picture to someone on a monitor and/or e-mailing it as a 72 ppi they get to see a good picture, but what if you are sending it so they can print the picture. Would you e-mail it as a 72 and allow them to convert it, or send it as a 300 ppi so they would get a good quality picture that's printable from the start?
Any information on this would be appriciated.

EstherP

Forget about the 72 or 300 ppi for now - it's the total # of pixels that are important.
If they want a printable image, sent a file that is 1800 x 1200 pixels.
If that is shown at 72 ppi, it will be 25 x 16 2/3 inches - and if that is printed it sure will be blocky.
If shown at 300ppi, it will by 6 x 4 inches, with nice, smooth lines - as sharp as the original without any "blockiness" or pixelation.
EstherP

Wahawk Loc: NE IA

:thumbup: :thumbup:
Main usage of ppi is to determine the pixels needed to view or print a certain size. The more total pixels the better the final print, regardless of the ppi rating.

Ka2azman Loc: Tucson, Az

I thank you for your input, but I'm still in the dark about how to send the picture. What I gather is that one needs to know the size that the other person is going to print the picture, and appropiatlely send it in the amount of pixels necessary for that size of picture. Id est, one amount of pixels for a 8x10 and smaller amount (size) for a 4x6, for them, after receiving the e-mail to print an acceptable picture.
The situation is this, I take pictures of hikes I go on and was sending the pictures to one of the rangers. They like them and have asked approval to use some of them in the pamphlets they print to promote the park. But it takes a long time week after week to send these "hot off the camera". In other words, the large files and I have stopped because of the time consumption of uploading. A smaller file would be sent quicker, but would they be able to print a picture if I sent it to them?

CaptainC Loc: Colorado, south of Denver

Forget the PPI for now. ALL that matters is total pixels. Ideally, for an 8x10 you need 2400x3000 - that will give you 300PPI. 1920x2400 would be fine as that is 240PPI. When the recipient gets the file they will have to set the PPI for printing. Whether you set that to 72, 240, 300, or 987, it will be exactly the same size in megabytes. EXACTLY. So you might as well use 240 (the 1920x2400) as that will give you a slightly smaller file in MB but give good quality.

If that is too big, there are software options for sending big files outside of email: YouSendIt, Pando, Dropbox to name a few. Use one of those and it will solve your file size problem.

Let me repeat this: THE PPI is meaningless for the purpose of transmission - it is the recipients problem to set the PPI for printing.

Wahawk Loc: NE IA

If you are using a Windows PC, just go into the picture folder and select the pictures you want to send, then right-click and select SEND TO and MAIL RECIPIENT. This will bring up a box where you can select a size and for this situation I would select either the 1024 or 1280 size. This will give them a good enough view to see if they want to use the pictures and that may be large enough for their final use, otherwise they could ask you for a larger file of just the ones they want.

Ka2azman Loc: Tucson, Az

I thank you very much; that's the answer that I was looking for.

imagemeister Loc: mid east Florida

FYI - I use 96 PPI for mmoitor viewing on higher resolution monitors and 155 PPI for printing. I am picky, and can't imagine why anyone needs 300 PPI. I have gorgeous 36 inch wide prints done by Fine Art America !

marcomarks Loc: Ft. Myers, FL

A simple answer is that a 72ppi picture that shows as full screen on a laptop or typical monitor can't be printed as even a small 4X6 with a good result for anybody who doesn't have cataracts because there aren't enough pixels. Most every printer requires at least 200dpi (more is better and the printer will throw away what it can't use) to print a CVS/Walgreen's/Walmart quality print.

It's all about total pixels in the file you send. You could get a nice 4X6 print out of sending a file that is 1800X1200 pixels (300ppi X 6" and 300ppi X 4") but that's slightly bigger than the typical screen resolution that most people use. So you'd overfill their monitor but it would print a good 4X6.

Ask what screen resolution your recipient uses on their monitor to determine if your file will overfill it. If so, send them a smaller file they can look at "inserted" inside your e-mail and send another file as an e-mail attachment called "Printable 4X6" which is larger in pixels and MB file size.

Your editing software should allow you to resize and save versions by pixels and not just inches.

Calculate what size print you want them to print your photo by determining horizontal inches X 300 pixels and vertical inches X 300 pixels.

Determine how big you want them to view your photo on their monitor (when you know their viewing resolution) and calculate horizontal inches by 72 pixels and vertical inches X 72 pixels.

Let's say they view at 1280X720. That means you could send them a 720X576 file to view that will be 10" wide by 8" tall on their monitor and attach a file that is 3000X2400 for printing an 8X10 of the same thing.

Ka2azman Loc: Tucson, Az

I thank you all for you enlightening information, it answers my question and was very helpful. Great place UHH!