Publication Quality Images

High Resolution (DPI) Images

Creating Resolution Specific Images

We often get the question:

Q.  How do I create a X DPI image using PyMol's 'ray' command?

The answer is deceivingly simple. There are two steps in the process. First, setup your scene and use ray like this

ray 2400, 2400

From this you will get a large square image. You can now resize it to X inches where X=A*B, A and B factors of 2400 (eg: 8 inch photo @ 300DPI, 4 inch photo at 600DPI, 2 inch photo @ 1200DPI). The fomrula for creating images is:

rayVal = inches * DPI

where rayVal is the value you pass to "ray". Thus, an 8 inch square photo at 72, 100, and 300 DPI would be created by the following commands:

ray 576,576   # 8inch * 72dpi
ray 800,800   # 8inch * 100dpi; or a 4inch * 200 DPI photo; or 1x800.
ray 2400,2400 # 8inch * 300dpi; 6"x400dpi, etc...

Using PhotoShop or GIMP resize the photo to the appropriate height and width while making sure also to tell the PhotoShop or GIMP what resolution the image is.

GIMP 2.0

In Gimp, load your image (it'll most likely be very large) then

• Select:

Image ->
Scale Image ->
'Print Size & Scale Image Section' change 'New Width' to whatever width you decided on before.

• Save Image (File->Save)

You should be set.