What is the Difference Between Dots vs Pixels?

Have you ever wondered at the quality of prints you get? Some glossy magazines and newspapers have excellent quality of printing where pictures, graphs and illustrations stand out so well. What determines the quality of prints – dots per square inch (DPIs) or pixels per square inch (PPIs)? In many documents and also latest software, PPIs have virtually replaced DPIs. But it is not correct to assume that DPIs and PPIs are interchangeable. PPI, in brief, is the advanced or latest version of DPI.

Digitalization of the imaging and printing technologies has been revolutionary. It is why you can protect quality of a document or an image while transmitting it through net. Two decades, quality of images, pictures or documents transmitted through use of facsimile machines were far below than the original ones.

Though DPIs are invariably associated with the quality of printers, pixels get you connected to cameras. The higher the pixels a digital camera has, the better is the quality of picture it takes. The higher the DPIs or PPIs the better would be the quality of prints.

Digital cameras now available in the market have six to eight mega pixels. The higher the number of mega pixels, digital camera becomes costlier and of higher quality. Cameras with lower mega pixels are used by amateurs or beginners and are cheaper. Interestingly, you cannot improve the quality of an image, picture or a document, which originally had low PPIs.

Increased emphasis on both DPIs and PPIs not only make them an integral part of the contemporary print technology, be it of pictures or illustrations or printing of documents and other materials.

Those familiar with the printers and print technology understand that DPI is now fading out, as did the dot matrix technology. Agreed, both DPI and PPI have a direct bearing on the resolution or the quality of a print or a picture. But since letterpress-printing machines have paved way for offset printing machines, similarly printers have graduated from dot matrix to laser jets.Laser jets or even color laser printers have their quality of prints judged from the PPIs they generate. The lower the number of pixels; the hazy or pixilated print is the end product. In other words, since the number of pixels printed in an inch is small, size of pixels stays big and that affects the quality of the print. Smaller and larger number of pixels per inch indicates not only better quality but also pleasing to eye or catchy prints.

A given image or a picture can be printed in the given size or by reducing or increasing its size. Experts always advise against creating new pixels through use of computer. This alters the image quality. While changing the size of the picture or the image, it is recommended to throw away the number of pixels. In case you want to have an enlargement of the same picture or image later, it may not produce as good results as you would have with the original PPIs.

This Article is written by James Kara Murat from PrintCountry.com, the contributor of Printer Ink Related Articles. More information on the subject is at What is the Difference Between Dots vs Pixels?, and related resources can be found at Canon Ink Cartridges.