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Exporting from Lightroom

Posted: Thu Jul 17, 2008 11:17 am
by Keith-C
I am at present exporting Tiffs from Lightroom with 300 DPI selected. I nearly always do further processing in other programs. Does the use of 300 DPI impose any limitations on further processing - would it be better to export at native resolution & convert to a higher resolution at a later stage ?

Re: Exporting from Lightroom

Posted: Thu Jul 17, 2008 2:16 pm
by 01af
Keith-C wrote:... would it be better to export at native resolution & convert to a higher resolution at a later stage?
No.

The DPI value selected at export time has no meaning whatsoever. You may enter any numerical value that makes you happy---umm, except zero. And you can change it later with absolutely no impact on the actual image ... of course, it still won't have any meaning.

DPI is not image resolution but output resolution. And as long as the image is in a digitally stored file on your hard disk or on a DVD-ROM, there is no output involved. Things start to change as soon as you're sending your digital file to an inkjet printer or a printing press, or to a layout program. But then output resolution will get determined by many factors but not by the number in the DPI field. Consider it a kind of 'serving suggestion.'

-- Olaf