How to Change the DPI in Picasa 3
By Aaron Parson
The dots per inch, or DPI, of an image refers to how many pixels or dots of ink a picture contains within each inch. DPI does not actually have significance when discussing digital images. It describes the quality of printed pictures – the larger you print a picture, the fewer dots it will have per inch. In Picasa 3, you can change the pixel resolution of an image to change its effective DPI when printed.
Step 1
Open Picasa and select the photo you want to modify from your library. You can select multiple images by holding "Ctrl" and clicking on each picture.
Step 2
Click "Export" in the Photo Tray panel.
Step 3
Select the location on your computer where you would like to save the new version of the photo.
Step 4
Pick "Resize to" in the "Image Size Options" section.
Step 5
Drag the slider or type in a number of pixels to set the longer dimension of your image. The other dimension will adjust automatically to preserve the aspect ratio. To effectively set the DPI of an image, multiply the DPI you want by the number of inches you plan to print the image at. For example, if you want a 200 DPI image printed on five-inch photo paper, set the pixels to 1000.
Step 6
Click "OK" to save the resized image.
References
Tips
- Resizing an image in Picasa creates a copy of the image rather than saving over the original. If you want to select a different size in the future, work from the original rather than the copy.
Warnings
- Even though you can resize an image to a larger pixel resolution, doing so will cause the image to look blurry and not actually improve print quality.
- Information in this article applies to Picasa 3.9 and may vary slightly or significantly with other versions.
Writer Bio
Aaron Parson has been writing about electronics, software and games since 2006, contributing to several technology websites and working with NewsHour Productions. Parson holds a Bachelor of Arts from The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Wash.