dpi

Hi, I never can find the answers I want (could be I may not use right search words), I do have a question regarding textures though.

When making something for clothing or for prims (such as a wall or floor texture) is there a dpi that works the best or is a standard? I know 72 dpi is for web graphics, 150 for some photos and print, 300 for photographs to be printed.

Regarding the wall/floor texture sizes, I was wondering if there is a certain size that works the best for the prims. I know if I use a huge one without cutting it down, it causes a flickering. So is there a standard, like 500 x 500 with a specific dpi as well?

I can't access sl atm, so figured I would try and work on some textures and maybe even delve into outfits. )

To the best of my knowledge:

72 dpi is all you need because everything is on screen.

It's best if you work in units of 256 (or uh, whatever the math-y way of saying that is)

so:
256x256
512x512
1024x1024

I also use 512x256 for rectangles.

You can use other sizes but they take longer to load and look fuzzy.

Thank you very very much!!

There is also a movement to help educate people to use 512x512 or 256x256 for all your textures. Many textures at 1024x1024 in one area can cause longer loading times for many people.

I have even read that the visual difference between 512x512 and 256x256 on most monitors is negligible.

Thanks, I'll keep it down to the 246 and 512. 72 dpi. I really appreciate the advice.


I miss SL

DPI is meaningless unless you're printing the image. It's just an instruction for the printer telling it how many pixels to put per inch. For documents that are only going to be displayed on a monitor it doesn't matter what the DPI is set to. You can just ignore it

Hey, I thought I would pipe in on this topic since I know something about it.

DPI (dots per inch) and PPI (pixels per inch) are the same thing, you will hear both terms, but they both mean monitor or screen resolution. So 72 ppi means effectively 72 pixels per inch. So why not use higher ppi in SL? Most, I think Apple cinemas are higher, monitors only display 72 ppi, so even if you have a 300 ppi image it still only displays on your screen at 72 ppi. Now of course you can zoom into a higher ppi image and have better detail under zoom, but static screen graphics are not meant to be viewed under zoom. Using higher dpi graphics in SL will only increase your file size and slow downloading of your textures. Now of course work bigger, use whatever size you want in creating your piece, just save the final at 72 ppi.

Rosie mentioned 300 dpi for photos and such, and that number comes from the conversion from ppi to LPI (lines per inch) which are used for print. A high quality print is anywhere from 150 lpi and up, so from this we get PPI/2=LPI. Newsprint is usually 72-96 lpi, magazines 133 lpi and brochure quality prints from 150 lpi and up.

Sativa, I'm wondering why theres even a need to worry about dpi, ppi or lpi here, since the final output onscreen is variable dependent on distance and angle of view. Only the individual pixels matter here. It just means, if you want more detail, you increase the pixel dimensions. Up to a point, where it gets too high, all kinds of aliasing and moire artifacts will surface. Plus, the resolution at which people run their monitors at will make their ppi fluctuate.

Basically theres really no meaning telling people to save it as 72 ppi.

You're correct. All people need to worry about is raw pixel dimensions. In this context DPI and PPI are meaningless.

that's one of my pet peeves, when someone says they want a high rez raw file at 300 dpi.

It doesn't matter what the dpi is, it's the same number of pixels coming out of my camera whether it's 72 dpi or 300 dpi!!!

So like Chip and Cottontell have said, a 512x512 image is still 512x512 pixels regardless of the dpi.

While this is very true....drawing something in 150dpi (for example) and uploading it takes longer. The higher the dpi the larger the file size is.

Im my experience, when I make some clothing and use the templates, I turn the templets to 100 dpi but keep them in the 512x512 (this keeps the file size the same). I can get a little bit more detail and sharpness in the item I am creating. This is esp. true in making tattoos...I can tell the difference if a tat was made at 72dpi to the ones at a higher dpi.