I cannot export a DRAW document in the correct DPI/PPI

[jensnikolajsen]

Hallo

First and foremost I am no computer person, graphics professional and all technical details and everything is completely unknown to me - and this is probably why I have problems.

I run a small bussiness and now I want to make some printed leaflet about my products for my costumers. As I start up I don’t really have any money and instead of investing in the full adobe+word packages I installed Libre Office package.

I am designing this leaflet and have photoes from my supplier in the correct resolution and everything. The problem being that whenever I export, it photoes on the file comes only in 150 DIP/PPI and not 300 - as the printing house says is necessary for it in order to look fully professional when printed.

What do I do? I have tried all different export settings in DRAW when exporting and nothing seems to work. I have been doing this for a week now and and I have not become any further. I have replaced the pictures, made new files and everything, but the pictues in the files keeps being in the 150 DPI/PPI.

Also: I do not know where I can view the files photoes DPI/PPI. This is just the printing company who’s telling me that. I have no clue of how to get out of this now and I don’t want to make an ugly leaflet.

Please help!

PS: I am working in Windows is that matters.

[LeroyG]

Assuming you’re exporting as PDF (menu File - Export As - Export as PDF):
Reduce image resolution to: value must not be less than 300 DPI.

[jensnikolajsen]

Thanks for the answer.

Yes, this was obviously the first thing I did. I have exported countless of times with many different DPIs for now, but never one that have been below 300. So for some reason this doesn’t work. What could I do instead to solve the problem?

[EarnestAl]

Note that the Reduce image resolution to setting does not increase resolution to that dpi. It is up to the user to insert images of correct resolution.

The only accurate way to get increased resolution is to obtain higher dpi copies of the original image. Images intended for web pages are typically lower resolution than for print. You may have been sent those.

If you insert a 300 dpi in Draw and it appears on the page at a size of 1.4 inches square but you want it 2 inches so you drag a corner out to expand the image to two inches, you will end up with an image at 150 dpi.

An image editor, like the GIMP, can do a better job than LibreOffice of increasing the size of an image (resizing) using clever algorithms but it cannot add lost detail and the result won’t be as good as a higher resolution original image.

[Edit]

@jensnikolajsen

I do not know where I can view the files photo’s DPI/PPI

Draw is not a raster image editor, the only built-in indication is if you right-click an image that has been resized on the page, then you will see Original size menu entry to return it to its original dpi and dimensions; if the entry is missing then it is at original size already. In this respect, Writer has the advantage as you can right-click on a raster image, select Properties and read the dpi in the Crop tab.

To see the image file’s dpi you can:

• select Edit with external tool in the right-click menu. If your default raster graphics editor can show original dpi then look for a Properties entry in the menu. You will need to do calculations to work out maximum print size to keep at 300 dpi.
• copy the image and paste it into a graphics editor like the Gimp and use its tools to find the dpi and print size
• Find the original image file and open it in an image editor to find out dpi and physical dimensions at that dpi

I have attached a Calc sheet to help work out either what print size each image should be, or how much it needs resizing to get to 300 dpi. I have entered mm in the headings but you could change it to inch, the calculations will still work but you must consistently use the same measurement system
CalculateSizeAtDPI.ods (14.8 KB)