How big can you print this photo?
A photo that looks sharp on a phone can turn soft at A4 and mushy at A3. This reads the pixel dimensions straight out of your file and works out the real PPI at every common print size, so you find out before the lab does.
| Print size | PPI | Result |
|---|
Only the width and height of the file are read, in this tab. The photo is never uploaded and never even drawn to a canvas.
What the numbers mean
PPI is pixels per inch: how many pixels of your file land in each inch of paper. Print the same 4,000-pixel-wide photo at 10 inches and you get 400 PPI; print it at 30 inches and you get 133. The file never changes - only how thinly it is spread.
- 300 PPI - the standard for anything held at arm's length. Photo books, framed prints, gallery work.
- 240 PPI - what most photo labs actually print at. Indistinguishable from 300 for almost everyone.
- 150 PPI - fine for a poster you stand back from, visibly soft if you walk up to it.
- Below 150 - individual pixels start to show as soft blocks, especially along edges and text.
PPI is not DPI
DPI describes the printer - how many ink dots it lays down. A lab printing at 1,440 DPI is not printing your photo at 1,440 PPI; it is using many ink dots to reproduce each pixel. The number you control is PPI, and it is the one this tool reports.
Newspaper rows are graded differently
The last two rows of the table are a newspaper column, and they are judged against 200 dpi at print size rather than 300, with 150 as the floor. Those are the numbers papers publish - the Chicago Sun-Times asks for 200 dpi at the printed size, and 150 is the figure reported for Legacy.com. A column is a fixed width and whatever height the picture needs, so those rows are measured across the width alone: 1.8 inches for one column, 3.8 for two.
What dpi to scan a print at
The scan planner works backwards from what the scan is for. A whole 4 × 6″ print needs only 90 dpi to fill a single newspaper column - but a face that occupies a quarter of that print's width needs 360, because you are throwing three quarters of the scan away before it reaches the page. The big number is the minimum; the setting underneath is the next stop on a scanner's dial, and never below 300, because you put the print on the glass once.
“300 dpi” in a file header is a label, not a quality
A JPEG carries a density field that says something like “this is 300 dpi”. Nothing in the picture depends on it: the same pixels labelled 72 or 300 print identically once you choose a size. The tagging button rewrites that field and leaves every pixel untouched, which is what you want when a submission form checks the label and your pixel count is already fine - and no help at all when it isn't.
Why the tool crops rather than adds borders
A 3:2 photo does not fit an 8 × 10″ sheet, so something has to give. The PPI here assumes the print is filled and the overhang is trimmed, which is what a lab does unless you ask for a border. If you would rather keep the whole frame, crop deliberately first with the photo cropper so you choose what leaves the picture, not the printer.
If the file is too small
Enlarging in an editor does not add detail - it guesses at pixels between the ones you have, and at print size that guess looks like softness. For an old family photo, a rescan at a higher resolution is always the first thing to try; a 4 × 6″ print scanned at 1,200 DPI gives you enough pixels for A3. Restoration is for when the original itself is small, creased or faded and no scanner setting will fix that.
Too few pixels to print? That is a scan problem, not a crop problem.
Restoration rebuilds a small or damaged photo at a size worth framing - creases, fading and all. From $6, no subscription.