How to Reduce PPI in Illustrator

Pixels are small squares of color used to make up an image.

PPI, or Pixels Per Inch, and DPI, or Dots Per Inch, are two separate things often confused with one another. Pixels are the small square dots used to represent a digital image on a computer screen. DPI refers to the small dots a printer creates when printing an image. Because Adobe Illustrator is a vector-based program and not pixel-based like Adobe Photoshop, it is not possible to change the PPI, simply because the program doesn't have one. You can however change the DPI.

Instructions

1. Open Adobe Illustrator and load the file you wish to work on.

2. Click "File > Print" to open the print options dialogue. From the "Printer" dropdown menu, choose "Adobe Postscript File".

3. Select "Output" from the seven categories on the left of the printer dialogue box. From the "Printer Resolution" dropdown box, choose a reduced DPI. The first number is your screen frequency and the second number is the DPI. Click on "Save."

Tips & Warnings

• It is possible to change the PPI of a pixel-based image imported into Illustrator, but this must be done through a sister program such as Photoshop or InDesign.

References

• Adobe: Change the Printer Resolution and Screen Frequency
• Adobe: Image Resolution Guidelines for Final Output
• Avenza Systems: Finding Image Resolution in Adobe Illustrator
• Adobe: Printing Artwork and Producing Color Sepeations