# Need help resizing an image for printing
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-help-resizing-an-image-for-printing/372039
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [September 9, 2006, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-help-resizing-an-image-for-printing/372039 "2006-09-09T04:03:25Z")
**Posts on this page:** 12
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@MannyL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MannyL)
#### Post date: [September 9, 2006, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-help-resizing-an-image-for-printing/372039/1 "2006-09-09T04:03:25Z")
I need to print a photo onto credit card size paper. The image has the current dimensions
X 1038 Pixels
Y 682 Pixels.
What size do I need to adjust to?
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### Author:  [@Rico](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rico)
#### Post date: [September 9, 2006, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-help-resizing-an-image-for-printing/372039/2 "2006-09-09T04:08:36Z")
Most prorams allow you to switch between pixels and inches.
However, if yours doesn’t, give me the dimensions and I’ll tell you the pixel dimensions.
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### Author:  [@MannyL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MannyL)
#### Post date: [September 9, 2006, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-help-resizing-an-image-for-printing/372039/3 "2006-09-09T04:15:48Z")
Rico I’m using Nero PhotoSnap as my printing and resizing app. For resize it allows me to specify Pixels and Percentage, If there is a better free app to use please let me know. The credit card size paper I’m printing to is Two inches by Three and a third it looks like
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### Author:  [@malolelo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/malolelo)
#### Post date: [September 9, 2006, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-help-resizing-an-image-for-printing/372039/4 "2006-09-09T04:18:07Z")
i am usin photo shop
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### Author:  [@MannyL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MannyL)
#### Post date: [September 9, 2006, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-help-resizing-an-image-for-printing/372039/5 "2006-09-09T04:20:45Z")
> [@malolelo](#):
>
> i am usin photo shop
Last I checked Photoshop was not free
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### Author:  [@Rico](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rico)
#### Post date: [September 9, 2006, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-help-resizing-an-image-for-printing/372039/6 "2006-09-09T04:31:44Z")
Try 219x144.
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### Author:  [@Rico](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rico)
#### Post date: [September 9, 2006, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-help-resizing-an-image-for-printing/372039/7 "2006-09-09T04:33:17Z")
And Irfanview is a GREAT free app.
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### Author:  [@MannyL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MannyL)
#### Post date: [September 9, 2006, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-help-resizing-an-image-for-printing/372039/8 "2006-09-09T04:53:14Z")
Thanks that worked.
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### Author:  [@Rico](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rico)
#### Post date: [September 9, 2006, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-help-resizing-an-image-for-printing/372039/9 "2006-09-09T05:05:46Z")
Np problem! Glad to help.
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### Author:  [@Santos\_L\_Halper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Santos_L_Halper)
#### Post date: [September 9, 2006, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-help-resizing-an-image-for-printing/372039/10 "2006-09-09T11:59:26Z")
> [@Rico](#):
>
> Try 219x144.
But that’s like 72 dpi. That’s fine for showing on a computer monitor, but isn’t it fairly pixelly on paper? If it were me I’d want to print it at least 150 dpi, preferrably 200-300 dpi. IOW, the pixel resolution was OK, **Manny** just needed to resize the physical dimensions it was printing out as.
I don’t know anything about Nero PhotoSnap however, so it may not be possible for that program. I use Paintshop for cropping/resizing pictures.
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### Author:  [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)
#### Post date: [September 9, 2006, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-help-resizing-an-image-for-printing/372039/11 "2006-09-09T12:25:55Z")
Uh . . . I think some (or all) of you are making a very common mistake. You’re confusing “pixels per inch” with “dots per inch.”
“Pixels” refers to the resolution of the file, itself, in your computer. “Dots” refers to the actual dots that are printed in your output. There’s no automatic correlation between the two terms; the number of “ppi” an image has, tells you absolutely nothing about the “dpi.”
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### Author:  [@abla512](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/abla512)
#### Post date: [September 10, 2006, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-help-resizing-an-image-for-printing/372039/12 "2006-09-10T15:30:34Z")
I disagree. While they are not the same thing, they are pretty darn close. The printer (in case of images, at least) prints pixels. Nothing else. You CAN give it data in another ppi, but the result would not be optimal.
To print something with a certain dpi, the ppi needs to be of at least equal value, otherwise the print quality will not be the same as the dpi could provide - in essence, this will result in seemingly using a lower dpi.
The ppi can also be higher than the dpi, which is a good thing to keep in mind. The image in question would probably have been better off having a greater ppi, since it was indeed meant for 72 dpi and so will never acheive higher quality, even though the original image had more than enough pixel data for this.