smartdraw photo User Manual

Printer resolution is the number of ink dots printed on an inch of paper. Most of 
today’s printers have a resolution around 300 to 600 dpi. In most cases, the 
printer’s resolution will not affect how you size and scale images. When 
SmartDraw Photo communicates with the printer, it tells the printer the exact 
print dimensions of your image. For most people, using the SmartDraw Photo 
print layouts and templates will be the easiest way to print. To learn more about 
how to print using layouts read the Printing Your Images section on Page 223. 

If you need to control print quality or if you are creating graphics for a 
professional printing house with specific requirements, you can read about the 
relationship between image resolution and print quality.  

For most printers there is an optimum image resolution after which even if the 
image resolution (ppi) increases, there is no discernable increase in printed 
image quality. This is because printers are limited by their LPI.  LPI stands for 
lines per inch.  

LPI measures the number of halftone dots a printer can create in an inch of 
paper. Halftone dots are how a printer simulates continuous shades of colors 
while only using four colors: cyan, magenta, yellow, and black (some photo-
quality printers also add light cyan and light magenta). Every individual pixel in 
your image will be represented by a random pattern of these smaller various-
sized printer dots. This process is also called screening. 

Below are some common lpi outputs from different printers: 

 

To obtain a quality print, your image resolution should be slightly higher than 
the printer's given lpi. To calculate this ideal resolution, multiply the lpi by 
about 1.5 to obtain the ideal pixel per inch (ppi) for your image. For example, 
for a 360 dpi photo-quality inkjet printer with a 150 lpi, you can get a photo-
quality print if your image has at least 150 x 1.5 or 225 ppi.  

If you don't know your printer's lpi or if doing all this math seems too confusing, 
the best way to find your optimal print resolution is to experiment. Print a test 
image at various resolutions to find out what your minimum ppi is for a photo-
quality print. A good test image is a close up picture of a newspaper or a photo 
that has some angled straight edges in it. 

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