Standard DPI Settings for Print, Web, and Scanning
A short list of integers — 72, 96, 150, 200, 300, 600, 1200 — that print shops, scanners, and upload forms keep asking for. Here is what each value is actually for.
The common DPI values, and what each is for
Standard DPI settings are not laws of physics. They are habits that escaped from 1980s monitors, photo labs, and press rooms and never left the forms. A JPEG or PNG stores one density pair — EXIF XResolution / YResolution, JFIF density, or PNG pHYs — and software labels that integer “DPI” or “PPI” depending on the decade. The useful question is which of these standards the job is asking for, and whether you have enough pixels to support the physical size at that number.
Print size in inches is always pixels ÷ DPI. Raising the tag shrinks the claimed inches. It does not add detail. Lowering it claims a larger print from the same samples. That arithmetic is the whole relationship. Everything else on this page is a map of which integer which desk expects to see.
| DPI | Where it came from | What it is for |
|---|---|---|
| 72 | Legacy Mac screen default | Early Macintosh displays were 72 pixels per inch so one screen pixel matched one PostScript point. The number became the default density tag in a lot of imaging software. It is not a print standard and not what modern screens use. |
| 96 | Legacy Windows default | Early Windows displays were 96 PPI. Same story as 72: a leftover monitor default that still shows up when a tag is missing, or when an exporter writes a “screen” resolution. Screens ignore it either way. |
| 150 | Viewing distance | Large-format posters and banners that people stand several feet from. At that distance the eye does not resolve 300 samples per inch, so 150 is the usual spec — and a kinder pixel budget on an 24-inch-wide print. |
| 200 | Newsprint and drafts | Newspapers, some magazine ads on coarse stock, inkjet proofs, and digital archives. Sits between 150 (distance viewing) and 300 (photo-lab habit). Insertion orders often write this number on purpose. |
| 300 | Photo-lab / magazine habit | The universal print standard: photo prints, magazines, business cards, journals, IDs, KDP interiors, Etsy printables. If nobody specified a number and you are printing a photograph, start here. |
| 600 | Fine detail | Fine-art giclée, line art, small text, logos with hairlines, some medical and archival scans. Twice the samples of 300, which matters when the marks themselves are the content, not a photograph of a scene. |
| 1200 | Press and archive | Professional press work, precision labels, and archival scans of text or line art. This is capture or output addressability, not a photo-lab upload default. Do not tag a snapshot 1200 and expect a press to invent ink. |
Two of those numbers — 72 and 96 — describe dead monitors. The other five describe jobs. Mixing them up is how a phone export tagged 72 gets bounced by a lab that only looked at the integer, and how a 600 DPI scan of a letter gets relabelled 72 on export and then looks “too small” in a layout program. Check the tag. Then decide whether the job wants that tag changed, or whether you actually need more pixels.
Which DPI does your job need?
Match the output, not a superstition. The same file can be correct at 150 on a poster and wrong at 150 on a 4 × 6 in lab print. Use this list, then confirm pixels ÷ chosen DPI ≥ the inches you will print.
- Photo prints (4 × 6 through 8 × 10), magazines, business cards, flyers, DTG T-shirts. 300. This is the number photo labs, journal portals, and marketplace checklists look for. See DPI for printing for a pixels-needed table at 300.
- Large posters, banners, trade-show graphics (18 × 24 and up). 150, sometimes 200. Viewers stand back. A 24 × 36 in poster at 300 would demand 7200 × 10800 px; at 150 it needs 3600 × 5400, which a decent camera can actually supply.
- Newsprint ads, some magazine advertising, email proofs, office archives. 200. Coarser halftones cannot hold 300, and a lot of briefs write 200 on the insertion order. Use the 200 DPI preset when that is the number on the paper.
- Canvas wraps. 150–200. The weave already breaks up fine detail; 300 is optional if you have the pixels, not required the way a hand-held print is.
- Fine-art giclée of photographs. 300, or 600 if the shop asked for it and the file has the samples. Giclée printers can address more than 300; whether the photograph has more than 300 worth of information is a different question.
- Line art, logos, small text, technical drawings. 600 or 1200. Photographs hide a coarse grid in grain and tone. Hairlines and 8-point type do not.
- Scanning a print or a document. 200 for correspondence; 300 for photos you might reprint; 600 or 1200 for archives, line art, and small type. Scanner DPI actually creates pixels. Relabelling a 200 DPI scan as 600 does not.
- Web, social, email, anything that stays on a screen. The tag does not matter. Pixel width matters. Browsers do not read JFIF. Write 300 only if a human or a form will inspect the integer later.
If two numbers could apply, pick the one written on the brief. If nothing is written and the piece will be held in the hand, 300 is the safer default. If nothing is written and the piece will be seen from a hallway, 150 is enough and kinder to the file.
Screens ignore the DPI tag
A 2000 × 1500 px image looks identical on a monitor whether it is tagged 72, 96, 200, or 300. Browsers map image pixels to CSS pixels. They do not consult the density field. That is why “save for web at 72 DPI” is a ritual, not a requirement, and why you cannot preview print sharpness by staring at the file on a laptop. For what 300 actually looks like on paper — a dot every 0.085 mm, below the eye at reading distance — see What 300 DPI looks like.
The tag starts to matter the moment a printer, a layout program, or a preflight script reads it. Those tools use it as a default placement size and as a pass/fail integer. A file with plenty of pixels and a 72 tag still fails a “minimum 300 DPI” checklist. That is a metadata problem, not a sharpness problem. Fix the tag. Do not resample unless the pixel count itself is short.
How to change a file to one of these values
If the pixels already cover the print, rewrite the density metadata and stop. SetDPI does that in the browser: no upload, no resample, no second JPEG encode. Pick the page that matches the integer, or use a custom value on the homepage.
- Change DPI to 150 — posters, banners, large-format, canvas
- Change DPI to 200 — newsprint, magazine ads, digital proofs, office scans
- Convert image to 300 DPI — photo prints, magazines, cards, the default print tag
- Convert image to 600 DPI — fine art, line art, small text
- Convert image to 1200 DPI — press work, precision labels, archival scans
- Image DPI Changer on the homepage — 72, 96, or any custom value the brief actually wrote
Check what the file claims today with the DPI Checker before you rewrite it. If a portal rejected you for “DPI too low,” Increase Image DPI is the same lossless rewrite with a longer warning that raising the tag is not an enlarger. Phone exports and “Save for Web” files that need the photo-lab number also have a dedicated path: 72 DPI to 300 DPI.
The formula again, because it is the only one that matters: inches = pixels ÷ DPI. If the inches you get are at least the inches you will print, the standard setting is a label. If they are not, no converter on this list will save the job — you need a larger original, a smaller print, or a lower DPI that the viewing distance can still justify.