User Guide

20 Corel Painter User Guide
Resolution and Screen Appearance
Most monitors have a resolution of 72 dpi (dots per inch). Because of this, the
Corel Painter display default is 72 ppi (pixels per inch). This means that each pixel in
the Corel Painter image occupies 1 pixel on your monitor. The display resolution does
not affect the document’s actual pixels per inch — only how the image is displayed on
the monitor.
For example, a 300-ppi document displays at approximately four times its actual size.
This happens because each pixel in the Corel Painter image occupies 1 pixel on your
monitor, and the monitor’s pixels are four times the size of the image’s pixels. Put
another way, at 300 ppi your printed document will be approximately one-quarter of
its on-screen size. In this example, if you wanted to view the image at actual size, you
would set the zoom level to 25%.
Keep in mind that if you leave the dimensions in pixels and then change the pixels per
inch (resolution), the actual printed size will be affected by the change. If you set your
document size in inches, centimeters, points, or picas and change resolution, the
dimensions will not be affected by the change.
Resolution and Print Quality
The resolution of output devices (printers) is measured in dots per inch, and, in the
case of halftones, lines per inch (lpi). Output device resolutions vary, depending on the
type of press and paper you’re printing on. Generally, a photograph will be output at a
crisp 150 lpi if printed on glossy magazine stock and at 85 lpi for newspaper stock.
If you are using a personal laser or inkjet printer, set your document size in inches,
centimeters, points, or picas at the dots-per-inch setting specific to your printer. Most
printers will produce excellent output from images set at 300 ppi. Your file will be
output correctly — in the proper size and at the best resolution for your printer.
Increasing the file’s pixels-per-inch setting does not necessarily improve the output and
may create a large, unwieldy file.
If you are using a commercial printer or a more sophisticated output device, the
dimensions of the image should always be set to the actual size it will appear in the
printed piece. For the resolution, a good rule of thumb is to set your document’s pixels
per inch to twice the desired lines per inch. So, at 150 lpi, the pixels per inch should be
twice that, or 300 ppi; at 85 lpi, the pixels per inch should be 170 ppi. It’s a good idea
to check with your service bureau if you have questions about output device resolution.