Understanding DPI for artists
DPI(dots per inch) is often a confusing thing for artists who are starting to try their hand at print. This guide will try to be as simple and non-technical as possible. We’ll start off with an inch, as that’s the easiest way to explain it!
The 72dpi canvas
I’ll be using photoshop for this guide, but I’m hoping most other programs will allow you to input measurements that aren’t pixels. If you open your art program now and create a canvas that is exactly 1” x 1” at 72dpi.
You should have a canvas that is 72 x 72 pixels. This is pretty tiny.
When you print this it end up really pixellated like so: (not to scale)
): You didn’t want this. Now everyone has been telling you that you should make your canvas 300dpi as that’s what you do for print.
Unfortunately if you have already drawn your image at this size you can’t just change the dpi. This will in fact make the printer print your image even smaller.
72dpi vs 300dpi
The easiest way for me to think about this is that every pixel is a “dot” for your printer(sorry to anyone who knows the technical side of this).
You have this 72dpi canvas and you are telling the printer you want this image to have 72 dots/pixels per inch so your printer is printing off these bigger dots to fill that inch. This results in that pixellated look that you are probably familiar with.
You now change the canvas to 300dpi. This canvas now prints out at 0.24” because your printer is now cramming 300 dots/pixels into that inch so each dot has to be smaller. This results in a much clearer picture but now it is tiny.
The 300dpi canvas
Now armed with that knowledge set up a canvas that is 1”x1” at 300dpi.
Your resulting canvas should now be 300 x 300 pixels.
Much bigger! Now if you draw an image on this canvas and print it out it will be a lot crisper and clearer. However it also means you had to draw a much larger picture. This is the unfortunate reality of print. Everything needs to be over 3 times the size of standard screen.
This makes it really important to know your physical print dimensions as it is much easier to create an appropriately sized canvas using inches, millimetres and centimetres(I’ll get to mm and cm in a bit as well) rather than guessing what it could be in pixels.
Centimetres & millimetres
Since I’m Australian myself we don’t use inches, which initially left me a little confused. How does dpi work for us? Well it pretty much works the same way.
There unfortunately isn’t a dots per millimetre that I know of, but you set up your canvas using mm or cm and 300dpi and your program will be able to work that out for you still. The thing is that now after you created your canvas and you check the dimensions it will often has decimal points.
This is such a small measurement it won’t effect your printing. It’s basically because programs can’t create a canvas that has a half pixel or third of a pixel. So it will give or take a pixel to try and get it as close as possible to your cm/mm measurement.
A comparison
This is sort of a little bonus/sometimes if you think your canvas is too huge for print. It probably isn’t. Here are some common sizes and how big they print at 300dpi.
800 x 600px - 2.667 x 2in - 6.77 x 5.08cm - 67.73 x 50.8 mm
1024 x 768px - 3.413 x 2.56in - 8.67 x 6.5cm - 86.7 x 65.02mm
1600 x 1200px - 5.333 x 4in - 13.55 x 10.16cm - 135.47 x 101.6mm
As you can see these probably look huge on you screen but none of them are even close to an A4 page. Here is the reverse. I’ll show some international paper sizes with their 300dpi pixel sizes!
A5 - 148 x 210mm - 5.827 x 8.267in - 1748 x 2480px
A4 - 210 x 297mm - 8.267 x 11.693in - 2480 x 3508px
A3 - 297 x 420mm - 11.693 x 16.537in - 3508 x 4961px
As you can see these are rather large. So if you ever create a canvas and think you’ve done something wrong because the canvas is freaking massive. You are probably doing it right haha.
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Hope that makes any sense!
Prospit and Derse info post: What the hell is the difference?
So I don’t know WHY this is bugging me and why I have so many feelings about fictional characters and Homestuck, but I’ve been asked this question about 375027 times on and offline, so here’s the answer, to the best of knowledge that I’ve collected from Hussie’s everything (formspring, Twitter, the MSPA Wiki, the comics, ECT)
What is the difference between Prospit and Derse?
Common Misconceptions
I’ll just start with this one. PROSPIT IS NOT GOOD AND DERSE IS NOT EVIL. They are chess pieces. One is one team and one is the other. It does not make anyone good or anyone evil okay? Okay.
Another common misconception I’ve heard about the dream planets is that one is more important than the other. If they were, they wouldn’t split their heroes just to fuck with them. I mean really.
Here’s the thing with the planets: they’re governed by two similar, but extremely different motives. Let’s look into it.
Prospit
Prospit is governed by the idea of destiny. You have a role to play; you can reject this role all you damn well like, but it will find a way to bite you in the ass later no matter what. The planet is designed around the idea that a path is absolute: everything is bright and revealing, leaving nothing to be really wondered about because wow it’s all visible as shit, in allusion to the idea that you would know where you were going, as a Prospit dreamer, because of your destiny. It’s also why their clouds are prophetic: there is a path, and therefore, you can see down it because the path is definate.
Prospit dreamers aren’t all about “OH WOW MY LIFE IS FUCKED BECAUSE I HAVE THIS ROLE AND THERE’S NOTHING TO CHANGE ME FROM IT”. That’s not the case at all. Jade used her future premonitions of the things she saw on Prospit to help her team; yes, to fulfill their roles, but also as a preparatory technique to keep people safe. It’s part of the game: the people who wake up first are ALWAYS Prospit dreamers so they have an IDEA of what’s coming in the game. In the troll session, it was Kanaya, followed by Terezi. In the beta kids, it was obviously Jade. I’m guessing it was Jake in the Alpha Kids, though it has been shown that Dirk is also awake. Derse dreamers can also wake up before the game; the design of Prospit, however, is a warning for signs to come.
It’s the same reasons Prospitans wear colorful outfits and do not have Agents, though they do have postal workers: news travels. Plans can be made because things are predicted.
Derse
Derse governs the idea of free will, or better said, possibility. The idea of Derse is that anything could happen- and hell, it might! - but it’s very individualized and quite a “what you make of it” sort of deal. As an antithesis to Prospit, everything is dark and shadowed, because, as has been started, anything could and may happen. It’s also why they are connected to Dream Bubbles: Dream Bubbles being alternate routes and things that may or may not have happened, contained in memory. Dream Bubbles are possibility, so Derse is connected to them.
As stated in the Prospit section, Derse dreamers aren’t necessarily confined completely: they do have a job to do, the point is just less about how you do it and more about getting it done (as again, an antithesis to Prospit, which is all about how you do it). Derse dreamers use their dreamselves as ways to explore possibilities- Rose used hers to investigate herself and also Dave, especially during their Alternate Future Timeline escapades (Davesprite’s timeline).
THIS DOES NOT MAKE THEM EVIL. They are just the idea of possibility; because anything could happen, they can’t show every possibility! It’s just not able to be held in a finite space. So it’s enshrouded in darkness, wherein when it is lit, it will reveal the possibility it has taken shape as.
Derse has Agents because Agents change the course of things into the path they need, such as Jack and his team trying to take out the Alpha Kids.
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Hopefully, this will assist you in making your OCs or yourself or whatever to know more about the planets.
(and if anyone gives a shit about my slant on this, I’m a prospit dreamer. ♥)
Additional ideas added by reblargers:
from lucheek:
The goal of Prospit is CREATION. They are in support of the heroes creating a New Universe. (Ultimate Reward.) The clouds give hints of a new future that has yet to be, but is to be created.
The goal of Derse is not necessarily destruction, but the opposition of Creation. They want to stop the heroes from getting the Ultimate Reward. The dream bubbles show the past— things that are already made (and therefore do not need to be “created.”)
Poetry exchange !
Okay okay, so it’s late and I’m a bit sugar high, but that doesn’t mean I’m not serious when I say I’d like to do a poetry exchange with you guys (if you decide to take part). It’s nothing too serious, nothing too committal. If you want to do it for one day only, go ahead. If you wanna do it for only the specific time period that I’m putting up, okay. Hell, if you wanna do it always, go for it!
But basically, what I’m all about with this poetry exchange is just sharing the poetry. Specifically the ones inspired by spn, destiel, or any character from the show. (But hey, if you’re inspired by something else and want to use that as your poem exchange of the day, that’s completely fine also!)
Anyways, all I ask are a few simple things for all of us to abide by.
1. tag it so I/we can find it easily! Hmmm, let’s go with ‘springpoetryexchange’ (because who the hell knows, maybe I’ll want to do this again in the summer~ ). I would say to just tag my URL, but I really don’t know how many is gonna take part, so yeah. We’ll go with that tag. (As long as you tag with this tag, go ahead and tag it with whatever else you wanted also).
*2. If you participate, please ‘LIKE and/or REBLOG other people’s poems also. Sharing and letting other people read your writing can be pretty scary, and if that person has worked the nerve to participate, we want to recognized them for it. (And it’d be nice if you wrote something nice in the tags or how you felt when reading it in the tags, but I won’t require that. Also, if you’re really affected by the poem, it’d be cool if you let the writer know!! Writers love feedbacks and stuff!! But that’s also not required.) So yeah, share the love for poetry. Reblog and/or like. (I’d prefer if you reblog so others can see it too, you know? But yeah.)
And yeah, that’s it. :) I’m sure I don’t have to go into depth about don’t be an asshole if you don’t like it personally, don’t make a poem hating on characters and such.
Exchange starts tomorrow (April 23rd) and for the rest of the week~ if people want to make it longer, maybe for the rest of the month, we’ll keep exchanging poems through the tag :’)
Uh, any questions? Just message me.
*I updated this part.
Leeteuk (Leader)
A Super Junior Member Information Post: I
Basic Information:
• Real Name: Park Jung Su (or Jungsoo)
• Hangul: 이특
• Birthday: July 01, 1983
• Height: 178 cm
• Weight: 59 kg
• Blood Type: A
• Nationality: South Korean
• Casting: Starlight Casting System 2000
• First Appearance: 2000 MBC “All About Eve”
Trivia:
He is the leader and the oldest of Super Junior. He was the first member of Super Junior that was accepted into SM Entertainment. Leeteuk is notorious for his strong emotions as he is constantly seen in tears, both derived from joy and sorrow, and is very compassionate and caring toward his members. He’s well known for loving and seeking out attention, but also offering much of his attention to his loved ones in return. He’s a selfless leader, always putting the needs of his members before himself and also helping to promote their activities outside of Super Junior. He has an older sister named Inyoung pictured below:
- Specialty/Hobbies: Piano, composition, listening to music, singing. (Together with Henry Lau, Leeteuk composed “All My Heart” featured on the Bonamana repackage album.)
- Additional Activities: Leeteuk hosts and DJs Kiss the Radio at KBS Radio Hall. He also is a frequent guest star on shows such as Star King and Strong Heart.
Newsflash: Matthew is comming to a few talkshows in the comming week:
Monday April 1 th: The tonight show with Jay Leno
Thursday April 4 th: The Ellen show (YAY!!!)
Tuesday April 9 th: Conan on TBS (YAY!!!)
[x]
Pronouns Post
jsyk i am switching to they/them as my preferred pronouns.
i’ll be changing this in my sidebar too, obviously, but i will also reblog this a few times so everyone sees it.
also since some of my irl friends do follow this blog, if you want to ask me about it in person that’s cool too, i’m planning to let my closer friends know soon anyway.
PART TWO: THE PAIGE FAMILY
hollis:
hollis goes through this really amazing transformation from an openly neurotic shota prince with obvious self esteem issues into a privately neurotic buff young man with less obvious self esteem issues and a very unfortunate crush on fallon. amazing. he has been taking hair styling tips from ash ketchum since he could reach his dad’s hair wax. despite this, sometimes he can trick people into thinking he is a dreamboat because he’s musically talented and plays a bajillion instruments. if you look at him for a few minutes you can make out the big DWEEB sign that is above his head at all times; usually that ruins the illusion. hollis also plays the violin because i played the violin and that’s how this game works, fuck you.
hoyt:
hoyt is kind of shady and kind of a skeeze, but he’s also a really great music teacher. let him near your children. generally he is pretty easy going (to the point of being a slacker) and he basically got all the self confidence in the family, sorry hollis. since he’s pretty full of himself he has a hard time relating to people who aren’t. full of themselves. he likes to give pep talks. he is very bad at pep talks..
he dotes on hollis a lot and calls him “holly” in front of his friends because he is that brand of embarrassing dad.
that’s it. that’s the paige family.
BIG EDIT ON SATURDAY’S LIVESTREAMING
Changed movie screening on main post, due to planning of a tinychat before us during same date and time. Sorry for the inconvenience! Making separate post so that more people know.
SATURDAY: Movie Screening
- We will be streaming the 2012 Lorax Movie, and 1972 cartoon here for everyone to enjoy!
- It will be a double showing, so that people in any timezone can make one or the other. 4:30 PM EST, and 10:00 PM EST.
- Time Zone Converter for your needs.
1042 followers!!!
oh gosh!! um, well i guess i should do a post for y’all
sup dudes! my name’s Greg, 25 years old and i graduated with a bachelor’s in broadcasting. Currently a future hopeful radio host/voice actor and comics artist double threat with six years of college radio under my belt. So far comics are in the lead in terms of actually getting profit/getting my name out there, haha
trying to live the dream and move out to seattle with a job in tow so i can be around a lot of my friends and live somewhere that doesn’t induce perpetual swamp-ass levels of humidity. And also gain employment in a career that is actually relevant to my degree/talents
CURRENT PROJECTS:
I HATE SPACE: The adventures of a reluctant and self-loathing borderline OCD space explorer who is thrust into unfortunate circumstances, and is not good at wrestling the idea of random chance ruling his life. He’s forced to deal with these things when an accidental run-in with alien thief/assassin/spy/???? Vergil sets in motion what might be the most unfortunate, yet exciting piece of our protagonist’s life. Currently in the writing phase, hopefully finished within the year or early next year.
CROSS DIMENSION: Stereo and Six have been vagabonds for years now and have become accustomed to a life of only relying on each other, but soon may have to deal with something bigger than themselves when Stereo’s past catches up. Stereo slowly learns to share her burdens and open up to other people she runs into along the way of their adventures throughout the universe by way of the cross dimensional highways spread every which way with Earth as the nexus point. WHO KNOWS WHEN I’LL GET THIS DONE LOL
long text post!
Hi guys, I just want to say a few things about the zine, now that it’s all finalized and ready for printing!
The first issue of In The Name Of The Moon had eight pages. I threw it together with some of my friends from SVA to have something to give out at NYCC. I thought I’d be lucky to get 20 people to submit for the second issue.
Issue two now has about 110 pages and over 80 contributors, most of whom I’ve never met. Needless to say, I have never organized anything on this scale before. I was totally unprepared for popularity of the project and the volume of work I received.
So what I really want to say is, thank you to everyone for having patience with me while I learned the ropes of being an editor and organizer. You guys have asked great questions and now I feel like I could edit anything!
The thing that has kept me going is getting to see all the amazing work you guys did. It’s inspired me to think of ways to make the next issue even better. I hope you guys are as excited for issue three as I am!
In the meantime, keep a look out on this tumblr for info on where the zine will be at Otakon. I’ll be making a post for that on Tuesday. And early in August I’ll have info for all you guys out there who can’t make it to Baltimore but still want a copy.
Thanks again guys, you rock!
