DPI — dots per inch — is how finely the export is rendered. Set under DPI in the export preview.
| Option | DPI | Plan |
|---|---|---|
| Standard | 160 | All plans |
| High | 300 | Pro, Pro+ |
| Max | 600 | Pro, Pro+ |
Which to choose
Standard (160) is enough for a poster seen from a couple of metres away. It is the historical default and it produces manageable file sizes.
High (300) is the print industry's normal figure for something held in the hand or read up close. Use it for patterns, blueprints, documents, and anything with fine text.
Max (600) is for line art, technical drawings and type-heavy work where every edge matters. On photographic content the difference from 300 is usually invisible and the file is much bigger.
It cannot add detail that is not there
This is the part that disappoints people. DPI controls how finely Docuslice renders the poster it has. If your source image is 800 pixels wide and you are printing it a metre wide, exporting at 600 DPI produces a very large file of the same soft image.
Fix the source first:
- Use the original, largest version of the file.
- Use an SVG or PDF where the artwork is vector — those are resolution-independent and cost nothing at any DPI.
- If neither is possible, try AI enhancement.
Full explanation: blurry or pixelated prints.
The cost of higher DPI
- File size roughly scales with the square of the DPI. Going from 160 to 600 is not four times bigger, it is closer to fourteen.
- Export time and memory rise with it. On phones, a large poster at Max can be slow or can fail outright — see export failed or blocked.
- Your printer has its own ceiling. Sending 600 DPI to a printer that images at 300 gains nothing.
If your exported PDF is unmanageably large, DPI is the first thing to look at: the exported PDF is enormous.
Vector export sidesteps some of this
In a vector PDF export, text, SVG art and imported PDF pages are not rendered to dots at all — they stay as vector instructions and print at whatever resolution the printer can manage. DPI still governs how embedded photographs are handled, but a type-heavy or vector-heavy poster gets crisp output without a large raster file.