This is only a different way of saying the same thing? The K-5 output is fixed at 4928 pixels wide. Software exists that can enlarge this, but there is a quality loss even with the very best software and a modest enlargement in other words it can't really be done

The software in a printer can't do it either 2880/300 is a 9.6x enlargement. In any case that wouldn't be any use to the printer because it has to resolve the problem of printing 16M colours with only 4 inks, so it basically keeps the 4928 pixels and prints over them along with a bit of dithering on either side of each pixel sometimes spilling over to adjacent pixels. That's why B&W lasers, even the top ones don't go beyond 1200dpi = 4 inch x 3 inch print off a K-5.

It does seem that everyone sees this differently There is also the problem rarely picked up that pixels do not have a space between them..... printer dots do have white space, although modern ones might not

I can't see how you can work at 2880dpi? = 1.7 x 1.13inch prints?

300 DPI from the K-5 gives 16.43 inch x 10.88 inch prints which
fit on A3 paper.

Printed at 4800 DPI it would probably fit on a postage stamp
Actual size would be 1.03 in. x 0.6 in.

Canon claim up to 9600 ..... Behave!

The Scantips site is probably more reliable than the Wikipedia article.

Perhaps this paragraph from the Scantips page will help you understand just what a printer does. i.e. it uses it's extra printer ink dots to try to match the colours only.... nothing to do with resolution. That's why B&W Lasers which are the sharpest general purpose printers use a maximum of 600dpi (sufficient for most purposes) or 1200dpi (used by the pros).

Line art mode is the exception, being 1-bit 2-color B&W with no gray, no halftones, no dithering. In line art mode, the printer CAN use its full resolution, because pixels and ink dots can be the same spacing then. Every line art image pixel is either Black or White, and the printer can make black dots without dithering colors. You may want to print 600 dpi line art images, since line art is the exception, the one mode when the printer can use an image resolution equal to the ink dot resolution of the printer.

In the above case all 2880 printer ink dots would just be black or nothing (white). Close examination of the print would show 600dpi.

If you print an image with the printer set to 1440 it should print the same size as a setting of 2880..... the extra printer ink dots are just used for a better colour match (in theory) or marketing

Printing is very crude All sorts of tricks are used
to simulate 16M Colours. A monitor can display these directly
and exactly.

See some of the links in the Resolution Thread.

Bear in mind that not many people bother with printing and
the screen is the final result for a lot of shots.

Sorry John you've got that wrong They are both identical
Different names for the same thing


See the previous link. The screen completely ignores ppi/dpi. It just prints pixels. A screen grab/copy contains no dpi information.

One pixel is one dot What you getting confused with here is that a printer doesn't have 16 million colors of ink it has only 3-6 and no white so it has to use all sort of tricks to make that one dot look right. Sometimes scattered dots and sometimes mixing together several drops of ink to make up one pixel.

The 2880dpi refers to how fine a printer can print printer ink dots to make up the required colours of each pixel.

This page explains things a bit better:

http://www.scantips.com/basics3b.html

There's a handy PDF Chart on that page:

http://www.scantips.com/p86.pdf

You can get perfect copies of the rear caps NEW on ebay
for about £1.25 each.

Anyone using an Epson printer should use 360dpi instead of
300dpi it should be slightly sharper.

These two pages should help

http://www.scantips.com/no72dpi.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dots_per_inch

The K-5 is 300dpi, but the K10D and GX20 are both 72dpi???

I wonder why they did that the 72dpi goes back to the B&W
Apple days?