Spent 3 years using the wrong canvas size for my prints

I was making digital art at 300 DPI but only using a 2000x2000 pixel canvas for years. A print shop guy in Salt Lake City finally pointed out my prints looked fuzzy because I wasn't scaling up enough. He showed me how to calculate proper dimensions for an 11x14 print and it clicked instantly. Now I always start at 3300x5100 pixels for anything I might print later. Anyone else miss obvious stuff like this for way too long?

2 comments

2 Comments

loganhart5d ago

How did the print shop guy actually show you the math? Was it something simple like dividing the final dimensions by the DPI or did he pull out a whole formula? I feel like there are about fifty different calculators online for this but nobody ever explains the actual numbers in a way that makes sense until you see it in person. Curious if he had a specific method he used with all his customers or if you just caught him on a good day.

leo_campbell5d ago

He literally pulled out a receipt envelope and wrote it down like he was teaching a kid. PPI divided by 2.54 to get pixels per centimeter, then times the size in centimeters you want to print at. That was it. I asked him if he ever uses the online calculators and he laughed and said they're fine for lazy days but he's been doing it this way since 1998 so why switch. Did he break it down any more than that for you or was that the whole explanation?