mivox - 9:55 pm on Jun 11, 2002 (gmt 0)

2) Printers think in dpi, not ppi.
3) Therefore, the printer must translate the GIF from ppi to dpi.
4) The assumptions the printer makes about the number of dots per pixel (or pixels per dot) determines the final printed size of your GIF.

I'm not sure about those points. Some printers actually advertise a feature for
"smoothing" web graphics... others don't. I've never had a problem with my Epson printers changing the dimensions of GIFs though.

I don't think, however, that there is anything as specific as an actual "dots per pixel" number. The printed "pixels" in a 300ppi 2x2 image would be much smaller than those in a 72ppi 2x2 graphic... as the 300ppi image would be 600pixels x 600pixels in that two inch space, while the 72ppi image would only be 144p x 144p... so the printer wouldn't really be able to have a simple "dots per pixel" conversion.

The printer probably doesn't "think" in dpi at all. In conventional printing (such as newspapers & magazines), DPI refers to the number of halftone dots per inch in a "screened" image. Inkjets don't use halftone dots, and I'm honestly not sure what their "dpi" rating means... it could be the number of halftone dots they can print per square inch before the dots get blurry and bleed together, but I really don't know.

I don't know of any way to create a GIF at higher than 72ppi. Check to see if your printer's settings have some kind of "smoothing" option you could turn off.

Also, double check the pixel dimensions of your GIFs... ignore the "inches" measurements your software is giving you. If you want a 4" x 4" printed image from a 72ppi GIF file, the file should be 288 x 288 pixels...