Can some explain me please? Why if i right clicked the information about the file there is 96 dots per inch . But when i opened image in GIMP it says it's 300? Images were saved/downloaded from the web.
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1What are you actually trying to do? The dpi setting stored in an image only really has any significance for printing (and sometimes not even then) - it doesn't have any significance when it comes to displaying the image on your screen, and has no significance as an indicator of quality or size. You can mostly just forget about this value. – osullic Oct 01 '22 at 19:29
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https://www.gimp-forum.net/Thread-Image-size-in-Gimp – xenoid Oct 01 '22 at 21:18
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@osullic, why isn't that the/an answer? – Steven Kersting Oct 02 '22 at 13:20
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Related: Is there any practical difference between saving at 300ppi or 72ppi? – Michael C Oct 03 '22 at 16:05
2 Answers
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2 things.
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The PPI information on a digital image is just a small piece of text embedded in the metadata in some file formats. Some file formats have it, some do not.
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Some programs use this information, some do not care at all about it.
When you say "I right click" you do not say where you are right-clicking. On the browser? Is it Firefox, Edge, Chrome, Brave, etc?... there are a lot of them. On the operating system, on the file manager? Which operating system?
Some programs, if the PPI information is missing, can assume a default resolution, some can say 96, some choose 72, and some 300. In reality that is irrelevant.
So the answer is: some programs and file formats handle the PPI metadata or the lack of it, in different ways.
(A side note. The correct unit is PPI; Pixels per inch. Dots is a unit to define the physical density of a printer)
Rafael
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The DPI can give an indication of the size, if the image was obtained from a scanner (with auto-cropping). You can calculate the actual size of the original image from its pixel dimensions, and the DPI or PPI.
96 PPI is unlikely to be a scanner resolution though. It is usually 300 by default, and on some scanners can be set to lower or higher values.
Weather Vane
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This answer is probably true if you're looking at a faithful copy of an image file that was produced by some scanner. But like Rafael's answer implies, any software that is used to open and then "save" or "export" an image potentially could change or discard the resolution metadata. – Solomon Slow Oct 03 '22 at 17:05