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Render Resolution: Everything You Need To Know

An Ultimate Guide to Render Resolution – In the realm of architectural rendering, it’s the quality that matters the most. Be it 3D rendering or 3D animation, you need good quality visuals to impress the clients, investors, and other stakeholders. Having colorful and high-resolution imagery for 3D renders could be a game changer for your presentation. Thus, your business. Renderspoint has exclusively compiled this blog for our readers to make them learn everything about render resolution or rendering quality in other words. Understand various render resolutions available and the right scenario to use them. Let’s get started.

Render Resolution Explained

What is “Rendering Resolution” or “Render Resolution”?

The amount of precision, clarity, and detail held by a rendered image or a video is denoted by render resolution or rendering resolution. It is also referred to as pixel resolution. Resolution is denoted by pixels or “px” and for any image resolution is measured as pixels per unit area. It’s actually the picture size. There are three units of resolution:

  • DPI or Dots Per Inch – Mainly used for print media, dpi means the number of ink dots in an image. The higher the number, the better is the quality.
  • PPI or Pixels Per Inch – Used for digital images. It refers to the number of pixels in an image. DPI and PPI are sometimes used interchangeably.
  • LPI or Lines Per Inch – It refers to lines in a screen. The higher the number, the smaller the screen is.

When we talk about resolution, there are mainly two things that we refer to. These are screen size and image size. For example, an image size with a resolution of 1280 x 720 means that the image is 1280 pixels wide and 720 pixels in height.

Pixels and resolution combined give image data. A 3D render in high resolution will mean more pixels as compared to low resolution one. Therefore, a high-resolution image will take more time to render. Every project has different requirements in terms of resolution.

What is the Relationship Between DPI and Resolution?

Ideally, DPI and resolution both refer to the quality of the image. The only difference is the context they are used. Resolution refers to the entire screen size while DPI refers to dots per inch which is the number of dots/pixels that are present in one inch. The resolution of any rendered image will be expressed as width x height while DPI will be expressed as a single number. DPI is a measure of density of the number of pixels per inch of the image while resolution refers to the size of the image.

The relationship between DPI and resolutions stands significant when it comes to taking out physical prints. A single digital image can be printed in different sizes depending on the dpi settings. The higher the dpi for the same resolution, the image size will be smaller. Let’s take an example of an image with a resolution of 1500 x 1000,

Taking a print at:

  • 100DPI would mean 1500 pixels / 15 inches = 100DPI. The physical print will be a width 15 inches.
  • 300 DPI would mean 1500 pixels / 5 inches = 300 DPI. The physical print will be at a width of 5 inches.

What is the ideal size of Render Resolution?

For a digital image, there is no fixed size for a pixel. The resolution actually comes into play in the physical form, where sizes matter. In the printing industry, resolution is the total number of pixels in any image. There are certain worldwide standards to describe the rendered image resolutions. The higher the render resolution, the more details are included. These are:

  1. SD or Standard Definition – These images have less data and are less defined. These are more affordable and convenient to stream.
    • 480p – 854 × 480 = 409,920 pixels
    • 576p – 1024 × 576 = 589,824 pixels
  2. High Definition or HD – Get more accurate colors, crispier images, and smoother videos. HD images are supported by most of the modern devices. Here are some variants of HD.
    • 720p or HD –> 1280 × 720 = 921,600 pixels
    • 1080p or Full HD – 1920 × 1080 = 2,073,600 pixels
    • 1440p or 2K Quad HD – 2560 × 1440 = 3,686,400 pixels
    • 2160p or 4K Ultra HD – 3840 × 2160 = 8,294,400 pixels
    • 2880p or 5K Ultra HD – 5120 × 2880 = 14,745,600 pixels
    • 4320p or 8K Ultra HD – 7680 × 4320 = 33,177,600 pixels

The higher the render resolution, the higher the quality. Having a low-resolution image will look blurred, the colors may fade, and you may see some blurred squares coming up. The images distort in case they are zoom-in. On the other hand, having a high-resolution image will ensure:

  • Colours to be clear, accurate, and exact
  • Smoother video
  • Sharper Images
  • Finer detail
  • No blurring

Printer Resolution and Screen Resolution

There is always confusion between printer resolution and screen resolution. Let’s sort it out. Printer resolution refers to how many dots per inch that a printer can print horizontally and vertically. It is denoted by DPI or dots per inch. It’s the printer resolution as well that indicates the print quality. On the other hand, screen resolution refers to the size of the screen in pixels. Or, in other words, the amount of information that can be viewed on screen. A screen with low resolution or SD will display fewer pixels, on the other hand, an HD screen will display more pixels. Let’s have a look at some common resolution requirements for printing.

  • For Newspaper – Newspapers are printed at a very high speed on low-quality paper. Therefore, they may not require a very high resolution. It’s good to have a resolution of 200-240 DPI.
  • For Magazines – Magazines use high-quality paper, therefore it is recommended that the image resolution should be double the resolution used by printers for printing. For example, if the screen resolution used for printing a magazine is 100 DPI, the image resolution should be 200 DPI.
  • For Photos – 250-300 DPI would be a good resolution when you want to print your photos. Get a printer that offers high DPI printing.
  • Billboard Printing – As a billboard is designed to make the content visible from far distances, a lower DPI of 20 DPI or 30 DPI will work. Higher resolutions are usually avoided as the computer will take a long time to load.

Architectural Rendering Resolution Recommendation

  1. For Static 3D Renders – There are no fixed defined settings for the 3D renders. It depends on the software, visualizer, and the project requirements. Generally, the 3D visualizer uses 2K resolution for preliminary renders or during the iterations and feedback-seeking steps. After making all the changes the final render can be taken out in 5K or 8K resolutions. Most of the best 3D rendering companies prefer 4K or 8K render resolution renders for final delivery.
  2. For Animation Renders – Animations or videos are measured in FPS i.e., framer per second. It is the number of frames of that scene in one second. The higher the number, the smoother is the video and is more realistic. It works without any distortion or lagging. Ideally, for a comfortable viewing, 30FPS is a good ratio. Anything below 24FPS is not recommended for standard viewing. Other factors on which FPS depend are the processing power of GPU and the original rendered images.

Bottom Line

Architectural rendering has completely revolutionized the industry but to unleash its power to the maximum, you need to have the right knowledge about rendering resolution. We, at Renderspoint, have the best and most highly skilled team that is ready to guide and assist you in every aspect of your project. Get in touch with us and feel how our dedication turns your project successful. Call us today for a free quote.