Most photo print services that develop and print from film for consumers have been printing at 150 dpi since the late 1990's, because most people can't see the difference with better resolution and it uses less ink and less costly printers.
Check the specifications in your printer's manual. It will tell you what is the maximum resolution possible with that printer.
Printer resolution is actually how many lines per inch it can print. Rule of thumb is that the best quality the printer can do is dpi(dots per inch) = 2 x lpi(lines per inch). So a 150 lpi printer can print best from a 300 dpi file.
Raising the dpi to 600 only means that the printer's software will discard half the information and print as if it were 300 dpi.
The magic "300 dpi" is because most home and office printers have 150 lpi standard. If you are using a better printer, or a service with better machines, then it's worth it, especially for high end publishing or art prints.
The other side of the resolution equation is what size finished print you want.
If you are printing smaller, thus increasing the dpi, the limit is the lpi capability of your printer.
If you are printing larger, thus decreasing the dpi, quality goes down but doesn't become apparent to the naked eye until dpi is less than 150. However, you might print a huge poster at low dpi and hang it up high. since distance between the print and the observing eye changes the apparent resolution.
Looking through a magnifying lens is the same as moving closer to the print. Now have I made it clear as mud?
Printing at 600 dpi will not hurt the machine, but may not be better quality, depending on the machine.
Printing at less than 150 dpi will have an apparent loss of quality at arm's length from the print, no matter what machine is used.
God bless you always, all ways,
Paul
--- In photoshop-beginners@yahoogroups.com, "nsams2002" <normsams@...> wrote:
>
> I've read that when printing a photo, using Photoshop, that the Resolution should be 300 or so. Anyway, not less than 300. But is it okay to print at more than that resolution, if after adjusting the dimensions of the photo, that's what shows up? For example 600 etc. Thanks in advance from Norm.
>
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