Increase Screenshot Resolution to 144 dpi

You can’t directly set DPI (like 144 dpi) for Shift + Command + 4 in macOS 15. 

There’s no built-in setting for that.

How macOS screenshots handle DPI

macOS screenshots are pixel-based, not DPI-based.

The system automatically captures at your display’s resolution (or Retina scale). 

On Retina displays, screenshots often already correspond to 144 DPI equivalent, but that’s just metadata + scaling behaviours >> not a user setting. 

In addition to the previews replies: on a retina mac, the screenshots DO come out with 144dpi.

If you do a screenshot on an external display, it will depend on that display's resolution.

For example:

I am using an M4Pro MBP, with an external 1080p display.

Both displays are at their default resolutions.

A screenshot from the internal comes out at 144dpi; a screenshot from the external comes out at 72dpi.

To confirm, just open in Preview, and press Command-I

If you need to change the nominal "pixel per inch" resolution of a photo or screenshot, many photo editors have ways of changing the PPI without changing the actual pixel dimensions.

For instance, if you had a snapshot that was exactly 720 pixels side,

• Setting PPI to 72 would cause the nominal print width to be 10 inches
• Setting PPI to 144 would cause the nominal print width to be 5 inches

Conversely, if you know the size that you are going to use for printing, and you have a minimum PPI target, that allows you to calculate how many pixels you need to hit the target. If you will be printing a photo on an 8" x 10" piece of paper, and you need at least 200 PPI, you need to provide an image (cropped to the right aspect ratio) which measures at least 1600 x 2000 pixels.

Dean Crapo wrote:

OK. This makes sense. It was two different systems I was using and different monitors that were giving me the different resolutions when opened in Photoshop. Thanks to all for the information.

You are welcome

Just to add, you set the DPI in the printer settings.

DPI vs PPI: Understanding the Key Differences for Digital Images

Not to nitpick but screenshots are measured in PPI, printer outputs are measured in DPI.

Preview allows one to change ppi without altering or recompressing the image.