all my photos are 72dpi despite changing setting for orig

XsMax-all-mac wrote: … all photos are 72dpi. I need 300dpi.

It's not clear what you mean by this. Cameras don't take pictures in dots per inch, 72, 300, or otherwise. Cameras produce pictures with some number of pixels. Here is an image from my 4 versions back iPhone 12:

The picture is said to be 12 megapixels because it is about 4000 x 3000 pixels.

If I print this picture as a 4x3 inch print, then it will be 1000 dots per inch. If I make an 8x10, then it will be 500 dots per inch. If I view that picture on my MacBook Pro, whose 13 inch Built-in Liquid Retina XDR Display is 3024 x 1964, then I will get over 250 dpi, no matter what the camera does. An iPhone 16 has 2,622 x 1,206 pixels in about 6 inches, so it will display this same picture at a bit more than 400 dpi, which is finer than the MacBook, because you tend to hold a phone closer to your eyes.

My Nikon Z8 takes pictures at 8256 × 5504 pixels, but the picture I see on the screen will still be around 400 dpi, the constant resolution of the screen. Well, until I zoom in-- then the Z8 can blow my 12 away. . The value of more pixels isn't higher resolution on screen, but that you can zoom in without losing resolution.

Can you tell us what you really want?

Photos changes the dpi to the screen resolution when it imports a photo into the library. It does not change the number of pixels in the image. The size of the print determines the dpi: see The Myth of DPI. So if you want to make the image resolution 300 dpi you need to adjust the width and height to dimensions that when divided into the no. of pixels in the width or height it will be 300.

For example an image with pixel dimensions of 3000 x 2400 pixels can print, at 300 dpi, a photo of 8" x 10". Any smaller print will be more than 300 dpi and any print larger will be less. It's all in the math.

Photos doesn't show the dpi as it has nothing to do with managing the images. I get the DPI or PPI when I open the image with Photoshop Elements for Mac. There I can change the dpi and thus the print size or change the print size and thus the dpi.

We get a lot of requests from users who are told by websites that they need 300 dpi but do not specify the print size needed. In those cases I tell them to send the largest pixel size they have and that should be sufficient.

"5D Mark ll — which does not take 72dpi btw"

Actually, it might. Most Canon cameras just set the dpi in the EXIF to 72. And I don't think that Photos changes it.

But as said, it does not matter.

Keith Barkley wrote: Hey! Is that from the Balloon Fiesta? It looks like one of the school launches they do the week before.

Plano Ballon Festival, north of Dallas. I haven't been to the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta-- I think they have 5 or 10 times the balloons that we get. Still, it's quite a beautiful sight!



OT-- where in Photos do you find a dpi number? All I see is(and all I need) is the number of pixels. I was wondering where XsMax-all-mac got those numbers…

Hey! Is that from the Balloon Fiesta? It looks like one of the school launches they do the week before.

Balloon Fiesta is coming up in a few weeks!