About PrintPin
PrintPin is a small, independent website with six free calculators for people planning a print job — on paper or in plastic — and an illustrated museum on the history of printing. It’s supported by advertising, not by a publisher or print company; there’s no parent brand behind it.
How the Tools Are Built
Each calculator does one specific, checkable calculation. None of them guess or use hidden formulas — here is exactly what each one does with the numbers you enter.
The Print Cost Calculatormultiplies page count by number of copies by your entered cost per page. It’s arithmetic, not a quote engine — the cost-per-page figure has to come from you or your printer, because paper, ink or toner, and shop markup vary too much to estimate reliably.
The DPI Print Size Calculator applies the standard relationship between pixels, resolution, and physical size: inches of print = pixel dimension ÷ dots per inch (DPI). Enter a pixel width or height and a target DPI, and it divides one by the other to tell you the largest edge length that resolution supports.
The Photo Resolution Checker runs the same relationship in reverse — pixel dimension ÷ intended print size in inches — to give you the effective DPI a photo will print at, then compares that number against 300 DPI, the long-standing photo-lab benchmark for what most people perceive as sharp, photographic-quality output. Below that threshold, the tool says so; it isn’t a hard rule, just the industry reference point it’s checking against.
The Print Bleed Calculatortakes a design’s finished trim width and height and adds your bleed amount to each edge that needs it, producing the full artboard size a print shop expects. Bleed — extending artwork past the trim line so a small cutting shift doesn’t leave a white sliver — is standard print-production practice; commercial printers commonly ask for 0.125” (3 mm) per edge, but the tool accepts whatever figure your printer specifies.
The 3D Printing Cost Calculator converts a slicer’s filament-weight estimate into a material cost: grams of filament × (spool price ÷ 1000, since spools are priced per kilogram). It only covers filament — it doesn’t account for machine time, electricity, or failed prints, which is worth knowing before you use the number to quote a job.
The Booklet Page Calculator applies the arithmetic of saddle-stitch binding: each folded sheet holds four pages, so a booklet’s total page count is rounded up to the nearest multiple of four (a “signature”) to find how many sheets the print run actually needs.
None of the six tools store what you type in, and none of them connect to a printer, a print shop, or a payment processor — they’re calculators, run entirely in your browser.
What This Is — and Isn’t
PrintPin is general information and simple arithmetic, not professional prepress advice. Printer specifications, ink and toner yields, paper weights, and shop pricing all vary by manufacturer, vendor, and region — always confirm specs, pricing, and file requirements with your actual printer or print shop before you commit a job. The site isn’t affiliated with any printer manufacturer, paper brand, or print-industry standards body it references.
Beyond the calculators, the site includes a Printing Museum covering the history of the printed word and image, a learn section of background guides, and a blog with articles on printing topics.
Questions or Corrections
If a formula looks wrong or a tool gives you an odd result, we’d like to know — see Contact.