[Bf-committers] Quick proposal for "Print Size" settings mode

[tonroosendaal at chello.nl]

Hi,

(Sending this via webclient, I'm in meetings 2 days).

What about presenting it this way in blender;

In the output format Panel, we can add a "DPI calculator" menu, which pops up like 'Game framing" now. The popup will show:

- Current preset DPI value (can be saved in files too)
- dimensions derived from this DPI, by choice in mm or inches

Changing the DPI value will alter dimension values, changing dimension values will keep DPI and alter actual 'Pixel' size. Which you will 
see when you close the popup menu.

That way we keep communicating clearly what actual size is that is going to be rendered.

-Ton-

BTW, to know on DPI:

- you can render without AA when you map pixels to dpi one-to-one
- rendering with AA, makes one pixel getting even more information than just '24 bits RGB'
- one "dpi" typically only is like 4 bits information on most printers. So it requires multiple 'dots' to represent 1 pixel OK
- do you know most book/magazine printers rasterize pictures with only 60 or 72 points?
- the 300 DPI demand is for 1-bits graphics, for *text* or vector graphics useful, never for photographs or 3d gfx

Et cetera. 

> 
> van: "Fabrizio" <ilac at maltanet.net>
> datum: 2005/05/10 di AM 12:22:09 CEST
> aan: <bf-committers at projects.blender.org>
> onderwerp: [Bf-committers] Quick proposal for "Print Size" settings mode
> 
>  Hi,
> 
> Sorry to intrude on this but as one of those who uses blender daily in a
> professional environment including for DTP, i'd like to say that i believe
> Intrr's patch would actually be very useful.
> 
> A) For starters it would save me (and others who use blender for print work
> eg. architectural montages, character design, etc) the trouble of opening up
> an imaging editing package to see what pixel size I have to render my image
> to be suitable at my required print size.
> 
> B) We can use a tooltip to say that a dpi of 200-300dpi is suitable for most
> print jobs and should only be changed if the user knows what he/she is
> doing.
> 
> C) We shouldn't refrain from introducing useful features because of expected
> user incompetence. If you can manage Armatures or particles - you should be
> able to manage print size settings!!! ;o)
> 
> D) 30x20inch render at 600dpi   = 18,000 x 12,000 pixels-  well beyong
> blender's 10,000 x 10,000 limit. So as long as the Blender internal limits
> are still imposed there shouldn't be any problems of Blender crashing at
> unexpected sizes, correct?
> 
> Obviously, this is your call Ton, but with the right tooltips it shouldn't
> be any more of a problem to the user than any other part of Blender can be.
> You could hide the 'print' switch setting in the user prefs area if you
> really don't want it to be part of 'regular'/default blender but that is
> something I'd vote against....
> 
> Anyway, thanks for hearing me out and apologies for the intrusion!
> 
> Regards,
> Fabrizio
> 
> ps. A DTP artist who doesn't know his DPI requirements should change
> profession.... ;o)
> 
> 
> Hi,
> 
> I think this is highly disputable to add this by default in a 3D
> gfx/animation suite. It can even be easily achieved with a Python
> plugin, offering the GUI in a Script Window. Such specialist additions
> is exactly what we have a scripting language for.
> 
> My main concern however is that the general audience, especially most
> DTP artists, haven't the slightest clue what a DPI actually means, and
> how to create properly 3D graphics for printing. Blender output is
> *not* comparable to output of normal 2d layout tools, but instead
> compares to the output you get from a (digital) camera.
> 
> Since rendering is done only with pixels in 3d software, with for each
> pixel an enormous overhead in CPU in memory, I really recommend to keep
> PIXELS as presented standard in Blender. I'm really not looking forward
> to a bug report stating "Blender crashes on rendering a 30x20 inch
> image with 600 DPI".
> 
> -Ton-
> 
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