help please with some dumb questions

[Lord Vladimir]

bear with me as i'm new to this lark!

I'm looking at doing a magazine but am getting confused with my dpi / megapixels.

I've read that you need 300 dpi for print. Question is if i have a photo thats say 72 dpi can i just click on make it 300 dpi in fireworks etc? does this then reduce the size? is it then print quality or does it need to be photographed in that dpi? how does megapixels come into the equasion - does higher megapixels mean a larger picture or higher dpi?

if someone could explain in simple terms would be very much appreciated as I do not want to get a lot of photos together and find out the printer says theyre the wrong spec. does resampling come into the equation what does this mean to?

thanks

[GetCarter]

Not at all dumb - and it's a minefield.

For a good explanation check out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dots_per_inch

But if you phase out of that - just remember that the image produced from a digital camera will only be as good as that digital camera can produce. If you want to print onto paper, then make sure you take the photo with everything set to max. Generally speaking, the better the camera, the bigger the image can be printed at 300 dpi.

Taking a small image and making it 300 dpi will not improve the quality of the image.

[VxDuncan]

print size = pixel size / dots per inch

So say your camera produces images that are 1000x1000 pixels (1MP). That means that at 100dpi it will be 10x10". Or 3.3x3.3" at 300dpi. The crucial thing is the number of pixels hasn't changed, just the size of those pixels when it comes to print. You never want to actually resize your images, just change the dpi to fit the usage (until the very end where you might resample for print / web etc).

[DIW35]

Don't worry about seeing 72dpi being mentioned everywhere, this usually relates to what you are seeing on your monitor.

300dpi as has already being mentioned, is recommended by many as the optimum pixels per inch for printing good quality prints. However, depending on how big you want to make your print, it is often acceptable to accept a lesser dpi figure, as bigger prints are usually viewed from a greater distance.

Have a close up look at any photograph on the next billboard you walk past. That's not printed at anything like 300dpi, but as billboards are generally viewed from several yards away it makes no odds.