Understanding dpi

Understanding Real Needs

The Print Service Provider must understand a customers real needs to make the right decisions about printer, inks,
media, and finishing to deliver the right print at the right price for customer satisfaction and profitable print
production. Given the breadth of choices available, and the complexity of these interactions, it might be
understandable to simplify the process of selecting a large-format inkjet printing solution by focusing on only a
few image attributes, such as dots per inch (dpi). But, without a thorough understanding of the requirements of
the application and the various elements of an inkjet printing solution, it is unlikely that prints will either perform
as expected or be produced profitably.
While more always seems better, such as when considering dpi, specifications that dont relate to real-world
needs can drive up cost of production, drive down profits, hinder productivity, and produce unsatisfactory results.
Inkjet printing involves complex interactions among many primary design elements of the printhead, printer, inks,
and media. Image quality is complex, subjective, and difficult to quantify. In fact, more than forty (40)
specifications covering application requirements and elements of a printing system have a primary effect on print
and image quality. Dozens more specifications affect the suitability of a print to an application, requirements for
its profitable production, and the impact of printing on occupational health and safety and on the environment.

Defining dpi
The dots per inch (dpi) specification has been used and misused for decades as a single specification that has
somehow become more important than others in determining how to produce a print that meets all of a customers
needs. If only inkjet printing were that simple, and a single number could help to make the right decision for a
Print Service Provider purchasing an inkjet printing solution, producing a print, and a print buyer specifying a
print.
The basic inkjet

printing process involves the following steps:

a printhead ejects an ink drop of a specific volume (or drop weight)
onto a specific printing material to produce a dot of a specific size (and color)
at a specific location.

Lets understand how dot location, drop volume, and dot size are related to dpi.
First, the relationship between drop volume and dot size is called dot gain, and this depends on physical and
chemical interactions between the ink and the printing material. Surface treatments and coatings have an
important effect on dot gain, which in turn affects color gamut, optical density, grain, and other image quality
attributes.
Dots may be printed only at specific locations on the print medium, defined by a square or rectangular grid that
bounds cells within which a dot may be printed. These are called addressible locations, and the size of the grid
is called the dot addressability or dot placement precision.
For example, with 6 cells per 1/100-inch in the figure at left, the dot
addressibility is 1/600-inch or 600 dpi.
The grid spacing (cell dimensions) in the printhead scan and media advance
axes defines the dot addressibility. While printed dots are generally
assumed to be round, and usually are nearly so due to the effects of surface tension, the grid may have different
horizontal and vertical dimensions. When the cell is not square, the addressibility along each axis is different.

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Practically, an array of printed dots must not have white space between
dots in a solid area fill (or inside a text character). This requires a dot
whose diameter is the cells diagonal. For square cells, the dot diameter is
2 1.4 times the grid dimension. The dots shown at the left are properly
sized for a printing resolution of 600 X 600 dpi.
Compared to placing nozzles closer together, it is less expensive to achieve
higher dot addressability by increasing encoder resolution on the printhead
scan axis, the media advance axis, or both.1 It should be noted, however,
that increasing the mechanical precision of the media advance mechanics and drive system can add significant
manufacturing cost to a printer.
In the figure at left, nozzles spaced 300 per inch on the printhead give 300 dpi in
the vertical (V) direction. The ability to place dots on 600 dpi centers along the
scan axis (H) gives a printing resolution is 300 (V) X 600 (H) dpi.
As seen in the figure at left, dots are sized to print in a 300 X 300 dpi grid but they
are placed with 1/600-inch precision along the scan axis. With finer control over
where large dots are printed, a printer can achieve both high throughput and high
quality. Throughput is based on high area coverage per unit time, and this requires
high ink flux: the volume of ink delivered each second to the print medium. Image quality is improved with
increasing precision of dot placement at high-contrast edges in an image, such as for text, lines, and graphical
elements.
Increasing the resolution of the media advance encoder, as well as the precision of the media drive mechanics,
allows the media to be moved in increments smaller than the nozzle spacing on the printhead.
Dots can be placed on a finer vertical grid increasing the specification for vertical printing resolution. This
requires printing dots on multiple printhead passes as the media is advanced a distance that is a fraction of the
printhead height plus a fraction of the nozzle spacing between passes.
Consider a simple two-pass print mode, where the media is
advanced half of the printhead height plus half the nozzle-tonozzle spacing.
The figure at left shows a 600 nozzle per inch printhead that
has 1/1,200-inch resolution along the (vertical) media
advance axis and 1/600-inch addressibility on the
(horizontal) scan axis for 1,200 (V) X 600 (H) dpi resolution.
Printing dots with 1,200 dpi dot addressibility in the media
advance axis involves printing rows of dots on a first pass at 600 X 600 dpi, advancing the media an integer
number of dot rows plus one-half, then printing shifted dots at 600 X 600 dpi on a second pass.
Combining higher dot addressability in both the scan and media advance axis allows dots sized for 600 dpi to
be printed at half grid points (or even smaller divisions) both vertically and horizontally. The printing resolution
for the example seen below can be claimed to be 1,200 X 1,200 dpi.
In this figure, only the dot in the lower left is in the regular position in a
600 X 600 dpi grid. The rest of the dots are printed at various horizontal and
vertical half-grid points for 1,200 X 1,200 dpi printing resolution.
This scheme combines high ink flux with large drops for productivity with high
precision dot placement for image quality.

Writing systems employing large dots with high dot placement precision can
produce images comparable to those with smaller dots where sharpness of edges and freedom from jaggies
are important.

Encoders measure the position of the printheads and the media.

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The figure below is a simulation that shows (at very high magnification) how different digital schemes print fine
detail in an element of the character g, for example. A smooth rendering of a portion of the character is shown
at the top right along with three different printing schemes, labeled (a) through (c):
(a) showing 600 dpi dots printed with 600 X 600 dpi dot addressability;
(b) showing 1,200 dpi dots printed with 1,200 X 1,200 dpi dot addressability;
(c) showing 600 dpi dots printed with 1,200 X 1,200 dpi dot addressability.
In terms of edge sharpness and smoothness,
printing large dots in a fine grid, (c), is seen to
produce similar results to smaller drops, (b).
The similarity between (b) and (c) and the
improvement over (a) is even more evident when
the figure is viewed from several meters away.2
In order to achieve the benefits of the large dot
fine grid scheme in Example (c), high dot
placement accuracy is required.

Dot Placement Accuracy

High precision placement of large dots produces
many of the benefits of small dots while allowing
high ink flux for high productivity. But, to work
effectively, high dot placement precision requires
high dot placement accuracy. Without high dot
placement accuracy, or its equivalent, low dot placement error (DPE), these benefits cannot be achieved and, in
fact, print quality will deteriorate.
DPE must be matched to the printing resolution to ensure that dots are
placed accurately at their intended grid points. That means that DPE
must be kept to a small fraction of the grid spacing. And as resolution
goes up, so the absolute value of DPE must go down proportionally.
Several common types of DPE are shown schematically in the figure at
left.
In row a, as the printhead scans from left-to-right, all drops are shifted
to the right due to this nozzles low drop velocity. This effect produces
ragged edges reducing quality in text and lines.

quality issues arising from excessive DPE.

In rows b-e, random DPEs leave gaps between dots and produce
uneven edges. Gaps add to image noise and color mottling. If no
other means is available to control DPE, larger dots must be used to fill
these gaps. This significantly increases ink consumption leading to
higher printing costs and issues related to high ink load such as lower
image quality, cockle, ink bleed, and poor drying. Poor registration
color-to-color and dot-to-dot (in multi-pass printing) are other image

In rows f-g, dots have been shifted down due to a media advance error: the media has been moved too far
vertically between printhead scans. This produces the highly-visible print quality defect called banding, where
a white gap is seen between dot rows.
Some printers attempt to hide the effects of large DPEs by increasing drop volume (and dot size) beyond whats
required for the printing resolution. This can increase ink use by up to about 40% and drive up printing costs.

Examples in this figure are simulated. In reality, dots are not perfectly round and some dot-dot interaction will smooth out cusps between
dots.

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DPE involves system-wide design and manufacturing considerations. Common sources of DPE include:
variations in drop velocity (drop-to-drop, nozzle-to-nozzle, and printhead-to-printhead)
variations in the drop ejection power supplys voltage, current, or pulse width
variation in printhead-to-media spacing along the scan axis
misaligned printheads
excessive mechanical and electrical tolerances in printhead manufacture
accumulation of ink, dust, or other contaminants on the printhead nozzle plate
inaccurate measurement or control of media advance and printhead scan position
vibration that produces relative motion between the printheads and the print medium
Minimizing DPE requires higher-quality components in the printer and tighter manufacturing tolerances. This can
add significantly to the cost of the printer. Since the acceptable value of DPE goes down as printing resolution
increases, printing at higher dpi comes at an increased price without necessarily providing benefits to the user.

Viewing Distance
How far the print is placed from the viewer has a direct effect on which print modes can give the best
combination of cost, productivity, and quality for the application. With all other factors being equal, including
outdoor durability, color gamut, media versatility, etc., a large format printing solution driven primarily by a
misguided need for high printing dpi may be more expensive without offering image quality benefits to the
customer.
The actual dot size and all dimensions associated with dot characteristics appear smaller as the print is moved
away from the viewer, and that argues that printing resolution must be matched to the viewing distance. Larger
viewing distance also suppresses the perception of print artifacts such as dot placement and media advance
errors. Using these principles, the following table gives practical guidance on how to choose a printing resolution
that produces high perceived image quality for various viewing distances and common applications.

Typical Viewing Conditions and Recommended Printing Resolutions by Application

Typical Viewing
Distance

Minimum
Printing
Resolution (dpi)

(at reading distance of 0.5m)

Fine Art

20 in. 3 ft.
0.5 1 m

1,200

1,200 2,400

Small format prints, text, documents,

technical graphics

20 in. 3 ft.
0.5 1 m

600

600 1,200

3 10 ft.
13m

300

600 - 900

150

> 900

Application

Point-of-Purchase, Point-of-Display, Event

Graphics
Directional signage, Vehicle wraps,
Billboards, Building Wraps

> 10 ft.
>3m

Perceived Printing
Resolution (dpi)

From this discussion, it should be clear how dpi is specified and how large drops placed on a fine grid can
produce high print quality at high productivity. Furthermore, understanding the effect of viewing distance leads to
practical printing resolutions that offer high perceived quality without the penalties of printing at high dpi.

2010 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. The information contained

herein is subject to change without notice. The only warranties for HP products and
services are set forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such
products and services. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting an
additional warranty. HP shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or
omissions contained herein.
February 2010

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