Standard photo print size in pixels

Some quick facts on photo print sizes in pixels.

This is for anyone like me who occasionally needs to make sure a certain HTML page prints out correctly on paper.  Sometimes it’s really tricky if you consider how some pages may resize an imagine in CSS yet the image still contains it’s original DPI.  Every time I end up needing to print a HTML page or an element in a HTML page I have to relearn this.  So this guide is short with just some facts that I find useful quickly.  If you want more details about this I recommend checking out PracticalTypography.com‘s article (link in sources area).

Some reference facts:  Keep in mind that 72DPI is what most pages are displayed at.  And according to my research 300DPI is the average print resolution.

If you have an image that has a DPI of 300, and you want to print it on a US Letter page at the same DPI then the internet tells you to simply multiply 8.5 x 300 = 2550 pixels and 11 x 300 = 3300 pixels.    This might be good information for printing out an image.  If you print an HTML page like this, you get the very typical edge to edge text that you see in, what seems like, 90% of anything on the internet.

What if you want to print text from a page?  With most margins being 1″ a 8.5″X11″ Letter page gives you 6.5″ of line length.  Practical Typography says to go by ‘Line Length‘, almost 3 alphabets together for one line, it makes perfect sense and it’s a rule that helped me a lot.

Bottom Line:  I’ll be researching this further.t’s best to research this if you need something to print 100% perfect.  However, I have found these few quick facts to be extremely helpful in getting it taken care of.

 

 

 

These sources have a lot of extremely detailed information.

PracticalTypography.com – Line Length    I recommend trying to print this page of theirs.  If you take off the URL printing it fits gorgeously on a Letter sized PDF.

BetweenBorders.com  Has alot of information about sizes of paper that is helpful as well.

Eddie Dounn

Web developer by day. Enthusiast by night. Owner of VAZED

The HackerAttitude Discussions