I want to print my Nomad scene. I rendered a 4K PNG and imported to Photoshop. It says that the image is 72 DPI. I am under the impression I will need 300 DPI for a quality print. How would I go about getting a 300 DPI export for print, what is the most efficient workflow at present? I have Photoshop and Blender, but don’t know how to use Blender yet. Ultimately it would be great to achieve everything from the iPad via Nomad and Procreate so I can through my MacBook Pro out the window and cancel my Adobe Photoshop subscription (that I hardly ever use). The Post Process in Nomad looks great and want to be able to keep it for the final 2D image. Any suggestions on the best workflow would be great. Thank you.
I think this thread might help you
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Yes ignore the DPI displayed by the PNG, it’s irrelevant.
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DPI is only important for the printers
If a picture has enough pixel you can print a 72dpi (monitor resolution) in 300dpi.
But first it’s good to know what size and viewing distance final picture should be.
The closer, the more dpi/pixel you‘ll need.
300dpi is needed if viewing distance is below 0,6 meter. I.e.
Check this under „ DO I ALWAYS NEED TO PRINT AT 300 DPI/PPI?“
At the end of this article there are numerous links.
I found this calculator quite handy, as it respects everything. Viewing distance, final size, needed dpi.
I would enter the wanted print size and viewing distance. The calculator will show the needed pixel resolution.
For better understanding. A photograph resolution is it‘s pixel. Same for renderings. No dpi. Photoshop says 72dpi as it is screen resolution.
Same resolution ends in smaller prints the higher the dpi. Play with the calculator and change dpi.
And here comes the viewing distance into the game. If you want to print in A4 I.e., it is very likely that the viewer will get very close. That means you‘ll need more dots per inch, DPI.
300 dpi is recommended for viewing distance between 0,6m-1m, our omnicalculator has a A4 print size preset.
300dpi A4 needs 2481x3507 pixels.
But if you hang the A4 sized picture on your ceiling, over your bed (just as an example), you won‘t get closer than around 1,5m. No need for 300dpi. Our calculator says 120dpi = 992x1402 pixel.
Or, our 2481x3507pixels from above would be enough for a ca 50cm x 70cm poster as 120dpi is enough. As long as no one is sticking his nose directly on the picture 
Dpi is a bit like you TV. If you want to sit directly in front of your TV, you want to have highest resolution possible. But if your TV is 2mx1m you want to have a bit more distance to see everything. In cinema the best places are in the back, remember?
But if your living room is 7m long and your viewing distance is 6m, you won‘t have that much benefit of an 0,5mx1m TV with 8k resolution.
A TV with 1mx2m and HD resolution will be end in almost same viewing result and will save you lots of money.
But if you have your iPad Just in front of you, it will cover more of your view than the big TV far away and you will see every pixel. The higher the resolution the better in that case.
Same with LED TV walls. 576x324 LEDs on a 8m by 4m wall are enough, if you can‘t get closer than something like 10-15meters.
This is just as an rough example. Please no high end freaks entering the discussion now. 
Hope this helps a bit.
Edit: about Procreate. As you can‘t change canvas dpi afterwards to my knowledge in Procreate, best is to open an empty canvas according to your needs. You have everything you have to know now. Then add the rendering.
If it‘s way to small and pixelated, Adobe Sensei offers resize 2.0. hurray 
Something others offers since ages. Sometimes for free like letsenhance etc. Search for AI resize. Some free offers might be good enough.
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You can change dpi in procreate or photoshop
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Thank you everyone for the great links and very useful information. I have read through your posts multiple times and did some extra research.
Alex, thank you for the link.
Stephomi, I’m not sure what mean by “ignore the DPI by the PNG ”. I thought I had to take DPI/PPI into consideration when printing. Maybe I am misunderstanding you.
Knacki, I understand what you are saying and thank you for the detailed explanation. I used your links for the Omni Calculator, and from inputing my “view distance” it calculates that 300 DPI is necessary.
Ivan, I didn’t know about the Crop & Resize feature in Procreate, thank you!
Here are the size details I used:
Scenario 1
Target print size: 500 x 500mm (the size I need)
To be view at: 600mm
Omni Calculator results: 5906 x 5906 px @ 300 dpi
Scenario 2 is the maximin render output of Nomad (4k). Exporting from Nomad and importing to Procreate I get 3840 x 2160 px @ 264 DPI.
Scenario 2
Nomad 4k PNG render: 3840 x 2160 px, I need 1:1 ratio so I will crop to 2160 x 2160 px
To be view at: 600mm
Omni Calculator results: 182.9 x 182.9 mm @ 300 DPI (this size is too small for my needs)
Here are two possible workflows:
Workflow 1 (iPad only)
Procreate > create Canvas CMYK, 5906 x 5906 px @ 300 DPI (500 x 500mm) > Import Nomad PNG 4k file > scale up imported Nomad PNG to fit canvas > Export as TIFF
Workflow 2 (iPad + MacBook Pro)
Photoshop (Mac) > open Nomad PNG render 4k > Crop canvas to 2160 x 2160 px > Image Size > Disable Resampling > Change image to 300 PPI Resolution > OK > resulting in 182.88 x 182.88 mm > Resample image up to 500 x 500 mm using “Preserve Details 2.0” > OK > Convert Profile to CMYK “Coated FOGRA39” > Export as TIFF
Workflow 1 resulted in very obvious pixelation, quality loss and colours looking brighter than they should. Workflow 2 doesn’t look too bad, there is definitely quality loss.
Does anyone have experience with Photoshop resampling (Preserve Details 2.0) to larger image size and then sending for print?
Let me know if I have misunderstood anything, or if there is a better way of doing things. Thanks.
You can use https://letsenhance.io/ to enlarge your image. It works amazingly well without pixelization effect. In free version you are limited to 5 images.
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DPI of the PNG is irrelevant as you are exporting at the maximum resolution that Nomad supports. If you need better resolution then you’ll need to use an interpolation software such as Gigapixel AI to enlarge it. You say have photoshop so as long as you’ve got the latest update, you can use the new super resolution to interpolate a larger image.
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An image (PNG) is just a set of pixels. 4K simply means it’s 3840 × 2160.
The DPI associated to this png doesn’t change the image at all, it can be anything. It can be 2, 1000 or 300 the png data is exactly the same.
I tried to export a png from Nomad to Procreate and when I « crop and resize », the DPI is 264. You can change it to any value it won’t affect the image quality.
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@Hythort
You did not understand.
Use the calculator and change only the dpi.
You‘ll see the pixel amount changes!
That‘s what you need.
If you need 300dpi, enter the wished printed size in cm inch or whatever, then enter 300dpi. On bottom you‘ll see the pixels you need for the png.
That‘s it. Now you can forget dpi as you already converted it to pixel size.
Generate the png in the pixel size calculated and upload to any print factory and it will be fine.
Before Procreate implemented DPI it was much more easy, as most brains are twisting now mine as well time by time.
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I tried Procreate and the behavior is different whether you initially created a canvas in pixel or cm (inch shouldn’t be a thing 
).
- if you create a 1000x1000 pixels canvas, when you change the DPI only the DPI will change.
- if you create a 1000x1000 cm canvas, when you change the DPI the canvas size in cm will be adjusted
However in both case, the number of pixels will always be the same, so the image quality won’t change.
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A bit more for all of us to learn. Me as well 
So we spoke more about ppi…
@Hythort after reading your post twice, it doesn’t seem to be wrong.
A good point in above article is also „contact your local print shop…“
This won‘t harm to be super safe.
What is the picture looking like, what you want to print? On which material?
Just for interest
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Well, mine have told me that I need prepare a 300 DPI JPG file, so… I knew I must get a bigger image so I enlarged it by letsenhance.io. But it really surprises me that an employee of print shop is saying things like this.
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I have to say this is confusing stuff for an someone that just wants to make some art on an iPad and then make it look good at a decent size when it is printed. I’ve spent three days reading and watching videos (and not creating art) and I still feel like I need to do a Bachelors degree in Graphic Design just to make a print.
I was getting confused with the PPI/DPI of the Photoshop and Procreate image imports. Importing the same 4k Nomad PNG render into Photoshop and Procreate you will get two different physical dimensions (mm). Photoshop defaults to 72 PPI which seems to be a standard for web design and Procreate defaults to 264 DPI, which is the Retina display PPI on the iPad. However, the Photoshop image will match Procreate physical print size if you change the Photoshop image PPI to 264. Both will result in the same print size. Of course increasing the PPI will reduce the physical print size as Stephomi explained.
Knacki, your post about the importance of print view distance is very valid and something I had never thought about before. As you said I will need to discuss this with the printing shop.
But as it is the iPad/Nomad render is 264 DPI/PPI anyway, so trying to target 300 DPI maybe a waste of time.
Here is some information about DPI from a fine art printing shop in my country (Australia):
“ DPI - what dpi is required?
Between 180-300dpi
Modern fine art inkjet printing technology is not constrained by the old 300dpi concept relating to traditional book and magazine print presses involving a matrix of ink dots with spaces between the dots.
Understanding pixel dimensions for an image is the important aspect as the pixel count is what really determines the maximum output size, not a figure for DPI which merely relates to a particular output size.
As a general rule of thumb the ideal would be a minimum 2800 pixels on the long side for a 40cm print. Extra pixels are fine i.e small prints can be produced from large files but not the opposite. ”
If I use 180 DPI/PPI, I will get a 304.8 x 304.8 mm physical print from the Nomad PNG render.
So as Bezzo said, interpolation in Photoshop will be needed to get larger images. The new PS resampling algorithms look promising but I guess I will need to bite the bullet and pay for some test prints. It looks as though it will be around $55 AUD for a 500 x 500 mm so hopefully there aren’t too many test prints.
Ultimately I would like to just work on the iPad connected to a LG Ultra Fine 4k monitor screen that is possible with the new iPads. I have a spine injury, so I can only spend about 10-15 minutes at the desk on Photoshop before pain becomes unbearable. Plus Nomad is very intuitive and easy to learn (unlike my experience in Blender).
Probably just some nice art paper for the beginning and then maybe frame it if it looks ok. I do see they also print on metal and wood which looks really kool!!!
I would post my Nomad renders but they have nudity. So I am not sure if that is allowed???
It is not!
Just open it in Procreate, change the DPI to 300 and voila it’s now 300 (without quality loss)!
DPI is only useful if you want to translate this number of pixels into physical size (you also need to know the viewing distance of course).
Here’s a video on Procreate:
As you can see the number of pixels doesn’t change, but the physical size is adjusted.
If you want a physical size bigger than that, you need something bigger than 4K (while retaining the 300 dpi quality).
4K is not squared, so according to Procreate with 300 DPI for 4K render its 325mm x 183mm.
The formula is 3840 / 300 * 25.4 = 325mm
(1 inch = 25.4mm)
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If you really think the image quality is a bit small for printing, you might as well try Topaz Gigapixel AI software, the magnification effect is pretty good.
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Concerning nudity, you need to add the « nsfw » tag to this topic (edit your first message).
I can do it for you if you can’t find it.
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OK got it. Slowly getting my head around this stuff. As you said right from the beginning, changing the PPI/DPI won’t affect the quality on screen.