How Large Can You Enlarge Different Megapixels?

Many people who use digital cameras want to know how large they can blow up or enlarge their photographs based the megapixel count of their camera. This article is aimed at teaching you how much you can enlarge your photographs depending on what type of digital camera you're using and what the pixel settings are on your camera.

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Here are some concepts you should understand before to fully understand the chart below:

This chart outlines how big you can blow up your digital pictures.
This chart was created and sent to us by one of our students. To use this chart find the resolution of your image and multiply it to find out how many megapixels the image is. For example a 1024 pixel by 1024 pixel image would be a 1MP (1 Megapixel) image because 1024X1024 is ~1 million pixels.

The chart below is in inches:

Color Quality Comments PPI Range
Superb
Superb
Just about the finest quality possible.
200+ PPI
Excellent
Excellent
The casual photographer will see no difference to a slight difference when compared to Superb.
150-199 PPI
Better
Better
Better than Good, but not as good as Excellent. The typical photographer will be very happy with prints of this quality.
100-149 PPI
Good
Good
Quality that your typical photographer will be happy with.
80-99 PPI
Fair
Fair
Quality will depend on the individual picture. For larger size prints the typical photographer will find them acceptable, but the sharpness will not be as high as a Good quality print. Compelling subject matter may trump the loss of sharpness. But doesn't it always?!
79 PPI or less

What is the difference between DPI and PPI?

It should be noted that the image enlargement size recommendations above are on the conservative size and will allow for optimal enlargement capabilities with the best and crispest possible picture.

However, you can still blow your photographs up further if you don't mind loosing a little bit of crispness.

For example you can enlarge a 6-7 megapixel print to 16.20 or an 8 megapixel print to 17x22. Better yet, you can blow up a 10 megapixel print to 20x30 for a good quality print.

If you're interested in learning more about this. Have a look at our online course.

(The chart on this page is entirely subjective!)

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