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I recently went over the new list of "Accepted Images sizes and resolution" and noticed that many products are now at 300dpi which didn't used to be. Did I miss an announcement/explanation about this?
What happens with products already approved that were below that? I have an old camera, so my file size was only big enough for a 292dpi resolution for the small calendars. I bought one before this new info. came up and it looks great, but is there now going to be a problem with those?
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Yes it does seem to say 300ppi on everything now. Yet if you look at the recommended pixel dimensions in the next box they are the same as they were before. E.g with Apparel the recommended pixel size is still 1800 x 2100 which is actually 150ppi at 12" x 14" since it should be 3600 x 4200 if 300 ppi is the recommended resolution.
Looks like it's either a mistake or Zazzle are in the process of raising the recommended resolutions. But I don't suppose that necessarily means older products wont still be within the minimum requirements.
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I've noticed several of the pixels sizes and recommended dpi don't match up.
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Well, it's good to know that I'm just not clueless about something important.  It's not good to know that Zazzle can't even get this basic info. correct after many attempts. I've never had problems like this in deviantArt and merchandise isn't even their specialty.
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I think if your in Photoshop use 300 Dpi just to be safe. 
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I try to use the recommended dpi. Right now I'm working on a calendar and at the large size 300 dpi each graphic is about 5mg (PNG). That's 60mg of upload for a single calendar!
With shirts I use 150 dpi. I could go 300 dpi, but it just takes that much longer to upload and I don't want to "abuse" Zazzle by using more storage space and bandwidth than necessary.
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Well, zeeks! didn't know there were 'new vs old' dpi issues here and am new to Zazzle - thought i was getting the hang of it but now i'm not so sure! Jude
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just when i think i get the hang of it - the tree gets bigger and there is a new branch to climb to....
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Cheryldesigns wrote:I think if your in Photoshop use 300 Dpi just to be safe. Well, I would use 300dpi if I could! My camera only takes 2048x1536 photos, so that puts me in a quite a narrow range for what I can print at 300dpi. So far 200dpi seems to work fine for things I've made with my photos here and on deviantART. There are just so many errors and omissions on the chart of accepted image sizes, it is very confusing for people working right at the minimum limits like me.
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I've been used to doing 200 dpi, but I'm glad I stumbled upon this thread because I was getting readyg to post a related question.
If I design in 200 or 300 dpi for a dark shirt (whose template says only needs to be 150 dpi), and I use NO semi-transparent pixels in the image to avoid the well-known "white" problems, what happens when it is converted "down" to 150 dpi for printing? Will all of my opaque pixels remain opaque??
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I filled out the feedback form on the Accepted images sizes and resolution page. Zazzle responded by sending me to: http://zazzle.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/467 I assume it was for the area that says this: "The general resolution requirements (in pixels per inch) are: * 150ppi for apparel, aprons, bags, hats, mousepads, and ties. * 200ppi for mugs, drinkware, calendars, cards, keychains, magnets, postcards, and all stickers. * 300ppi for custom postage * 100 ppi for photo enlargements/prints, and posters" That list doesn't include the newer products and rack cards, stationery and letterhead don't even have their dimensions listed on the other chart, so you couldn't calculate it from that anyways. I would think it would be simpler for Zazzle just to have the chart corrected asap anyways! This is such basic info. for them to have messed up on!  ______________ TulsaTees - Sorry, I haven't tried the apparel yet to figure out transparency issues there.
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You know if you see yellow triangles pop up on your old stuff, you'll have to re-do them now, right?
I haven't heard of ppi being a big issue except with the binders and the new paper products however.
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kerstitch wrote:Cheryldesigns wrote:I think if your in Photoshop use 300 Dpi just to be safe. Well, I would use 300dpi if I could! My camera only takes 2048x1536 photos, so that puts me in a quite a narrow range for what I can print at 300dpi. So far 200dpi seems to work fine for things I've made with my photos here and on deviantART. There are just so many errors and omissions on the chart of accepted image sizes, it is very confusing for people working right at the minimum limits like me. You could probably get away with a bit of re-sampling. The trouble with re-sampling is although it will remove the danger of pixels showing it tends to soften images. However you can apply a bit of sharpening. The other thing worth mentioning is if you convert to black and white you can normally get away with more re-sampling than in color, mainly because black and white is naturally more contrasty than color and you can also sharpen black and white images more without getting weird color effects. Of course if you want to create high contrast imagery to look like photo-screen printing you can of course vectorize hi-contrast monochromatic images and make them enormous. In fact poor quality imagery can even have a certain appeal in itself e.g add a course halftone dot filter and calling it Pop art. If you can't make it look better just make it look worse and call it Art
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artberry wrote:If you can't make it look better just make it look worse and call it Art Thank you artberry. I'll certainly be experimenting with things like that at some point. I hate to put up something for sale when I'm not sure it will print ok though, so I'll have to wait until I can afford to buy samples. lol I'm also getting back into drawing/painting, so hope to be able to do some bigger items with those things.
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Beachwalker wrote:You know if you see yellow triangles pop up on your old stuff, you'll have to re-do them now, right?
I haven't heard of ppi being a big issue except with the binders and the new paper products however. I haven't seen any triangles yet. Hope I don't!
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This is something I just noticed as well, so I have a call in to Zazzle about it. BTW, you may mean the same thing here, but PPI and DPI are two different things. Zazzle requests their images in PPI not a specific DPI. For more info on DPI vs PPI click here. I have worked with Zazzle before to correct image sizes. Last time it took over a year to have them fixed in the Help section, let's hope it doesn't take quite that long this time. I will let you know if I find out anything specific.
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Girlfreindfactory, that guys full of ______. I work as a Prepress Technician at a printing company, I'm trained as a Graphic Designer, so I know what I'm talking about.
Sure, for here at Zazzle, as long as you have the required number of pixels it will print fine, but for printing images/magazines DPI/PPI, are pretty much the same and both are important. If you send in a picture that is the correct number of pixels but 72 dpi/ppi, then it will print much more pixelly and bad looking than if it's set at 300 dpi/ppi. That's the whole point of dpi/ppi, is to tell the file how big to print/how many pixels to use for each inch. The higher the dpi, the more information is printed on each inch of paper.
So, online pictures dpi/ppi is useless, for here at Zazzle as long as you have enough pixels it's fine, but for that guy to say dpi is useless, is well like I said, full of ______.
DPI/PPi is especially important when you're starting images from scratch. If you typed in that you wanted to make a 5" x 7" file at 72 dpi, you're file would be not enough pixels, and you wouldn't be able to print it. But if you made it at 300 dpi, it would be perfect for print and have the correct number of pixels.
Also everyone needs to remember, that even if Zazzle says the minimum for apperal is 150 dpi, that the MINIMUM, you'd get much better quality with 300 dpi images. Think about that, that's twice the amount of info for each inch of your design when you make it in 300 dpi as opposed to 150 dpi.
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Hi folks, I just got off the phone with one of the managers from Zazzle and indeed they are trying to increase the image resolutions to 300ppi for all new items. He said you do not need to go back and adjust any existing items unless you want to, but for new items increasing to 300ppi will produce a better quality item. I pointed out that when they changed the ppi they didn't convert any of the dimensions, so he's taking some screen shots and passing it on to tech for them to correct. Also, be aware that on a couple of the newer items the horizontal and vertical dimensions are listed the same when one is obviously flip-flopped. He did mention that they do everything in ppi not dpi. I don't know how they print items, but since ppi has to do with digital images and that's how Zazzle requests images, that's what I use. katieryn, thanks for the info. I don't work for a printer and am not familiar with all the different types of printing available, just trying to help people understand the difference in case they have the option to set both. Does this article explain it better: here or do you have a good reference site to help us out? It would be greatly appreciated. Everything I've learned in graphic design so far (all on Adobe software) has dealt with ppi, not dpi, so that's what I'm most familiar with. When I first started working with personal printers everything was in lpi, so sometimes the acronyms are just a jumbled mess. lol Oh, if you wish to convert to the new 300ppi and need to convert to the correct dimensions... 300ppi is pixels per inch... if an item is 3" x 3" the image converts to 900px x 900px (multiply 300 by the inches and you'll have your dimensions). I was working on stationery and couldn't find the inches so I asked: vertical = 5.5" x 8.5" and vice versa for horizontal. Rack cards vertical = 4" x 9" and vice versa for horizontal. Hopefully this helps until they get the image sizes updated.
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girlfriendfactory, that link explains the differences much better. It's much clearer, and has more accurate information.
Everyone just needs to remember that if you're starting a new file always set it to 300 ppi if you are typing in the final measurement in inches/centimetres. If you're typing in your file size in pixels, then ppi doesn't matter as much, because you have made sure you have the proper number of pixels.
If it's a photograph you are opening, as long as there is enough pixels it will be fine. Just never resample your images up to 300 ppi. Resampling is your enemy when making your images bigger. Resampling a 5" x 7" 72 ppi image (360 x 504 pixels) to 300 ppi while still being 5" x 7" (1500 x 2100 pixels) is VERY, VERY BAD. That would result in a very blocky, pixelly looking image because you are almost quadrupling the about of pixels for that file. You never want to create pixels by resizing, you want to only use the ones that are there.
LPI refers to lines per inch. We don't need to worry about that here.
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I just created some postage that was well below 300ppi and had no problem.
Things like this drive me nuts. They don't take into consideration the quality of the pixels. I can get a better print from my old 2mp Olympus 2100 (when I can get the smart media to work) than I can my newer 8mp point and shoot most of the time. And actually the 5mp camera that wore out beat them both. They hadn't crowded as many pixels onto a small sensor with the older ones.
On the other hand when I create a poster I'm shocked at what size they want to make it. I know darned well that's not the optimal size for printing that photo and change it to what I wanted it at and note in the description that's what it is sized for.
OK......rant over
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