Anyone know how to change the default 72 to somthing higher for the final renderd image?

Attached Link: http://www.ethervizion.com

Nope. But to bring up the debate that has been waged only about a million times, why would you want to? It takes all of 2 seconds to change it in various image processing programs. -karl

There's no way in Vue 3.1 to do it ; anyway, I do not agree with Mr Martin : the 72dpi output from Vue is good for screen as everybody knows but when we need 150dpi or higher for print (I do not mean on these home printers), the interpolation algorithms from Photoshop (for example) can't achieve good results & cannot satisfy people who work in press. Everybody's knows that the resize option is a last resort.

Attached Link: http://www.ethervizion.com

aiya!! i knew this would happen. i should have kept my mouth shut. changing the dpi does not mean interpolating like you suggest. changing the dpi means absolutely no change in the info content of the image. example: 1280x960 @ 72dpi to 640x480 @ 144 dpi....no interpolation involved. Let's be clear, Vue allows you to set ANY dimension for your rendering, it just doesn't let you adjust the dpi of the image. And also, to be perfectly correct, we should be using ppi (pixels per inch) and not dpi (a printer feature). and setting the ppi to something different than 72 ppi, is simply an "instruction" for the printer to size the image a certain way....to print "so many pixels within the length of an inch". and you have to open some sort of program to print your image anyway, therefore, my conclusion that being able to preset the ppi would mean only the smallest saving in time. Interpolation would occur if we changed 1280x960 @ 72 ppi to 1280x960 @ 144 ppi. But this is *2* operations, change the ppi and resize (where the interpolation occurs). phew.....

Well put, Karl! Basically, if you want to print in a higher DPI, start by rendering in a higher PPI. Your monitor knows nothing of DPI because that's printer talk, and the printer doesn't understand PPI because that's monitor-speak. But if you have an image with large dimensions (like 1280x960) and you're printing to fit within an 8.5x11" paper, you will be printing at a higher DPI than if your image was, say 640x480 to start with. Clear as murk, eh? :)

Well, I think I have an idea now. Thanks all!!!

Attached Link: http://www.ethervizion.com

Maybe I can be a bit more helpful than I was, since this probably went off topic from what you wanted. So, my question is, for what reason do you want to change the ppi of the image? If you are displaying an image on screen, the ppi encoded in the image has no influence since the pixel spacing is determined by the monitor resolution and size. If you are printing, then you can just do a little math to decide the dimensions you should render the image. Since a low printed ppi will result in a blocky pixelated look, you probably want to start by deciding at what ppi you will print at. I am not going to get into the discussion of different printing technologies, but I will use high quality inkjet as an example, since this would be the most common scenario if you are doing it at home. Example: Inkjets are quite forgiving for printing ppi since the technology sort of smooths between the pixels. So, I often find that I can go as low as 150 ppi and get quite good results. Now, let's say you want to print the image 10"x7.5" (letter size with a 1" border). To calculate the dimensions of the rendered image: 10" * 150ppi = 1500 pixels 7.5" * 150ppi = 1125 pixels Therefore, set Vue to render at 1500x1125. When you set your image software to print your image at 10"x7.5", it is set to 150 ppi *automatically*. i.e. knowing image dimension and printing size automatically determines ppi. Is this clear....I don't know... -karl

Perfectly clear, for me at least. I hadn't realized the equation for determining the dimensions was that simple! So, thanks, I learned something good here. :)

Thanks Karl, thats pretty clear. Here is the deal. A company is interested in selling some prints of my work. And thay said the print standard thay use is A3 (wich iv never heard of)and im trying to figure out what size i need to render my pictures at (with 300dpi).

If I recall right, A3 is 11x17"...strange proportions for typical images, but I suppose the amount of page you use would depend on the image shape itself. Perhaps 10" wide...and using the nifty forumula, that'd be 10 * 300 = 3000 pixels...then the height would depend on the image's proportions, up to (16*300) 3900p. Check my math; I don't trust it. LOL! :)

Okay, not a paper expert, but checking MS Word, A3 is 297x420mm. So image dimensions: (297/25.4)" * 300 ppi ~ 3508 (420/25.4)" * 300 ppi ~ 4961 So, final image dimensions = 3508x4961. That should do it. -karl

Thanks alot all. I really do appreciate the help!

Ack -- I knew I screwed that up. Should say: perhaps 16" wide by 10" height -- at most. So 16300 = 3900p width (max) and 10300 = 3000p height (max) Sideways, of course, if the image is vertical.

oh yes, as Varian pointed out, this is to fill the paper. the aspect ratio of the image will probably be different, so one dimension will probably fill out the page while the other is less (e.g. 3508x4000).

okay, so now, what if you wanted to print your image on a sphere.....any takers ;)

ROFL!! :D ::bowing out::

okay, not to drag this out, but I just thought of something, are you sure they want your image to be 300ppi and that 300dpi is not just the printing technology. If the image is to be printed digitally (i.e. not photographed) then anything above 200-250ppi is usually waste for just about any (digital) technology. If the image is going to be printed then photographed then 300ppi is usually required. Just wouldn't want you to waste rendering time.... I know there are some people itching to argue with me so I use the very well written article (not by me) linked above as my rebuttal :)

Attached Link: http://www.ethervizion.com/post/print.pdf

oops, here is the link -----^

Hi karlm, I happen to work for a magazine that requires that all digital images be at least 266 dpi and preferrably 300 dpi. Since we print at 133 lines per inch (uh oh, NOW I've really confused everybody!) 200 dpi should be perfectly acceptable. I have always been confused about our company's policy, since in some desperate instances we have used images as low as 219 dpi and they've looked perfectly fine. Maybe it will have the tiniest bit of a soft focus look to it, but not enough to really make a difference. So I agree with you, even tho I know the industry thinks otherwise :) A good rule of thumb...render LARGER than you think you will need. It's no problem at all to make an image smaller but making them larger is a disaster since image editors like Photoshop basically have to "guess" what color to make a pixel that doesn't as yet exist. It doesn't do a very good job. Also, for printing you need to account for bleed, grind off, etc. Laurie