I only came across the render dimensions tab the other week after someone advised me too. I set it to 300 as previously i was rendering at 72 dpi.
Then I go to the render setting (as I always used before)  and type in something like 2000 x 2020(it automatically puts the second figure in). All I want is to display what I have on my preview screen and print it out at 300 dpi resolution in A5, A4 and A3.

Normally I would just put in 1000 and it would automatically render my image as in the preview screen. But no I have changed this amount to 300 in "render dimensions" it doesn't always render the whole picture. Do I have to adjust the render dimensions 1000 x???? select 300 dpi, and then go to render settings and put a diff amount in or the same ? Very confusing I take it I was rendering at 72 dpi before? There does not seem to be any quality diff between 72 and 300 apart from seems to take longer to render.

The DPI setting does not change how many pixels you render. It changes how it would print if you use a printing application that pays attention to the DPI. It is just a number. When set to 72, the default scaling applied to the paper version will be 72 dots per inch.

As far as Poser is concerned the only thing that matters is how many pixels do you want across and down. 1200 x 1200 at 300 DPI or 150 DPI or 100 DPI is still 1200 x 1200 pixels. The only difference would be when printed (with software that doesn't allow you to arbitrarily scale) it would come out 4 inches or 6 inches or 12 inches, for each of those DPI values.

When you explicitly set a dimension, the render will be that dimension, regardless of your preview image size, so of course it may be bigger or smaller than your preview window.

If you choose a different aspect ratio from your preview, then you will not see the same composition in the render as you will in the full preview window. However, the composition you will get is shown in the preview as a highlighted rectangle within the preview window. So by looking at the preview highlight, you can be certain that what you see in the highlighted area (not the ENTIRE preview window) is what will be in the render.

This is the sort of topic where using the forum search is a good idea to help you find what you want instead of waiting for responses to a new post. Here are a few I found - there are 1000 posts in the Poser forum mentioning DPI.

From 1999:

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/showthread.php?message_id=36123&ebot_calc_page#message_36123

From 2003:[

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/showthread.php?message_id=1060778&ebot_calc_page#message_1060778](http://www.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/showthread.php?message_id=1060778&ebot_calc_page#message_1060778)

From 2008:

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/showthread.php?message_id=3179853

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/showthread.php?thread_id=1907973

Here are a couple more posts on DPI made by me:

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/showthread.php?thread_id=2768436&page=2#message_3424720

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/showthread.php?message_id=3377855&ebot_calc_page#message_3377855

Hey MODS!

We need a back-room FAQ on DPI, PPI, etc.

Wow I will trawl through all this when I get home ... thanks ! I do want to print my images, mainly on A3, I have a  very nice 8 ink printer and want to get the most out of it.... would you suggest always using 300 dpi then ?  I have only seen that highlighted area once I guessed it would be for the render area but when it does not show it can still print diff to what I have on screen.

Wow I will trawl through all this when I get home ... thanks ! I do want to print my images, mainly on A3, I have a  very nice 8 ink printer and want to get the most out of it.... would you suggest always using 300 dpi then ?  I have only seen that highlighted area once I guessed it would be for the render area but when it does not show it can still print diff to what I have on screen.

Consult your printer-documentation. What is the max resolution (dots-per-inch) of your printer?

My fax-printer is able to print with 6000 dpi (low end). That is, if I want to have a picture where each rendered pixel repesents a dot on my printer, and I want to print A4 ( 8.3 inch wide), I need an image with 8.3*6000=49800 pixels horizontally. A3 is exactly times 2 = 99600 pixels horizontally.

But this is theory.

To find the resolution that fits your needs, take a very detailed, nicely colored image (size from above formular). Print it. reduce the pixel-size by 50%. Print again. If you can see no difference: Reduce the size again by 50%. Repeat until you can see a difference. Than add 50% from the difference to the previous print.

After round about 8 prints, you will have the best resolution for your printer.

Sample:
Start with 49800 pixels horizontally.

1. print: 24900, no visual difference to 1
2. print: 12450, still no visual difference to 1
3. print: 6225, DIFFENCE to 3 and pre!
4. print: 6225+(12450-6225)/2 = 9337, STILL A DIFFERENCE to 3
5. print: 9337+(12450-9337)/2 = 10893, NO difference to 3 - maybe the best
6. print: 10893-(10893-9337)/2 = 10115, NO difference to 3 - really the best

Tip: To save ink and time, make 3/4 of the image plain white ....

4800 x 2400 is the max resolution of my printer.... if I tried to print at 10893-9337 it would prob take 2 days to render ! my missus makes me switch off at night so can only render from 8am to 10 pm (14 glorious rendering hours)

I'm going to stop saying DPI, and say PPI instead, because we're really talking about rendered pixels per inch, even though Poser calls it DPI. The D (for Dots) is a printer thing, not an image thing, and refers to how many little dots of ink are used to make a single pixel. You really want 2400 DPI from a printer, so that a pixel is made of 64 tiny dots of color. Otherwise, when look close you can see the dots as a graininess.

I don't have any experience printing renders of any size, but I have printed photos anywhere from 4x6 inch (of course - who doesn't) up to 36 inches. The recommended PPI for "photo quality" is 300. For A3 this is roughly a 17 mega-pixel image, more than any camera I have. However, I've been experimenting with stitching multiple photos together to form very high-resolution panoramas. I have an image that is 150 mega-pixels - I haven't printed it yet.  I plan to print it at 6 feet by 2 feet, which is about 300 PPI. I plan to hang this in my upstairs hallway, where you will always be within a few feet when you look at it.

I like this megapixels chart - have a look.

http://www.design215.com/toolbox/megapixels.php

If you're not going to actually hold the paper, but rather hang it on a wall and view it from a distance, I think 150 to 200 PPI is acceptable for photos. I have a 6 megapixel photo in a 36 inch print that looks fine, because we don't stand 2 feet away from it.

However, if you want a render with incredible sharpness (usually not possible from a camera) then I'd stick with 300 PPI.

Wow I think I have almost nailed this, by far renderosity is the most helpfull forum I have ever come across... replys are almost as quick as google!

What is the panorma of that you are stiching together?..... sounds amazing!

I say I think I have got it, but still a little confused about the fact in the render dimensions section there is the ability to change dimensions and ppi.

But also in render settings, which is always the option I use for rendering final image (I never use the "render now" option because I have no idea where the PC saves it to) there are dimension settings but no option to change the ppi.

Will there be conflicts if I have dimensions set differently in both windows eg render dimensions set to 1000 x 1000 and 300 ppi in "render dimensions" window & in "render settings" 3000 x 3000.

When doing a non animated still image I use render settings usually tick smoothing and displacement and hdri "make movie" and select output to image, I then export  these png images to photoshop. Am I doing this correctly ?

Here's one I did at my daughter's high-school graduation 4 days ago. I reduced it here to be able to attach it, obviously. The original is 84 megapixels.

The original is 60 megapixels.

Quote - 4800 x 2400 is the max resolution of my printer.... if I tried to print at 10893-9337 it would prob take 2 days to render ! my missus makes me switch off at night so can only render from 8am to 10 pm (14 glorious rendering hours)

You need an IMAGE with this size, not a render. You can render mutch smaller. Just put as mutch copies as you need side-by-side with your image editor (Gimp, Photoshop, what else). Or get an image from elsewhere. You only need to make this test once. And you will see: you don't need as mutch pixels as you may think ;)

Thanks for clarifying that ! Bagginbill 36 MB (the small one) lol amazing detail well done that man!