What resolution are the nature photos, and will they print large? – Affordable Nature Photos

Every image page carries exact pixel dimensions. Plan against that number rather than the resolution badge, which rounds.

The arithmetic

Pixels divided by dots per inch gives inches.

• At 300 dpi, standard for commercial print, a 6000-pixel edge is 20 inches and a 3840-pixel edge is 12.8 inches.
• At 150 dpi, normal for anything viewed beyond arm's length, both figures double.
• Large-format is routinely output at 100 dpi or less, because viewing distance does the work.

For screens dpi is meaningless; only pixel width counts.

Plan against the crop

Most resolution disappointments come from here. A layout rarely uses the whole frame, so calculate the pixel dimensions of the region you will actually place.

A half-width crop of a 6000-pixel photograph is 3000 pixels. That is comfortably A4 at 300 dpi and not A2.

Aspect ratio first

The specification table gives the ratio, and in landscape work it decides whether an image fits your layout at all. Most frames here are 3:2 or wider. Reformatting one into a square costs a third of the width; into a portrait crop, considerably more.

Check the shape before the pixel count. A file with plenty of pixels in the wrong proportion is still the wrong file.

Bleed and safety

Print trims. Three millimetres of bleed on each side is standard, and anything you care about has to sit inside the safe margin. Nature compositions built right to the frame edge are exactly the ones where a horizon or a peak ends up in the part that gets cut off.

The previews

Seven widths from 480 pixels to the full size of the original, all carrying the three-by-three grid mark. They exist so pages load quickly and so you can comp a layout at real dimensions before spending anything.

Use them. Place a preview into your actual layout at actual size, check the crop and the type legibility, and only then buy. At five dollars the only expensive mistake available is buying the wrong photograph twice.

When a frame is too small

Ask before buying. Send the asset id and the size you need. Upscaling works and it invents texture, and invented texture in foliage and rock is visible to anyone who looks closely. Some frames exist larger than the catalogue publishes.

Screen versus print

One number causes more confusion than any other: dpi is meaningless on a screen. An image is not 72 dpi or 300 dpi on a web page; it is a number of pixels wide, and that is the whole story.

If a developer asks for a 300 dpi image for a website, what they need is the pixel width of the largest space it will occupy, multiplied by two for high-density displays. Give them that and the dpi field in the file becomes irrelevant, because nothing on the web reads it.