This is probably a dumb question.
I think i understand resolution but sometimes Inkscape confuses me.

In my opinion resolution in Inkscape doesnt matter. What matters is pixelsize.
So for an A4 canvas to be printed at 300dpi, you need 2480x3508 pixels.

That means exporting a 600x380px square at 90dpi, is the same as exporting 1200x760px at 45dpi, right ?
Both come out as 600x380px and have the same filesize.

Now, and this is where my confusion comes from, i use XnView as a picture viewer, and when i check the properties for these two examples,
the 90dpi rectangle has a printing size of 10,72 x 16,93cm, while the 45dpi is 21,45 x 33,87cm.
Both images also have the dpi in the properties, they were exported with.

Its the same in Gimp. When i check the images under print size, they both have the resolution embedded as they were exported as.

I remember Lazur saying that Inkscape doesnt imbed the dpi-value in a png. Maybe that has changed ?

Or do i have it all wrong ?

Okay, i did a search and read some older posts.
Seems Inkscape does imbed the resolution information into a png.

This seems to imply that i cant use the export dialogue to scale my artwork to any desired size, because it changes the resolution.
Which again means, that i have to plan everything i want to export very carefully.

Am i making sense ?

It all depends upon whether the program you use to print the graphic honors the dpi setting. Or if you're not printing your drawing at all For graphics used on the web, this seems to be totally irrelevant. Browsers will use whatever image size you set in the CSS, or just do drawing-pixel-to-screen-pixel rendering (plus maybe zoom).

When I create things I want to print, of a certain size (in mm, cm,...), and I'm not exporting an area that corresponds to the print format, I set dpi to 600 or even 1200 on export, and make sure it's still the same in the print dialog to get the exact same size. Works perfectly with Inkscape / Gimp (I print from Gimp, its printing dialog is the best one I've ever seen on my computer ).

Great ! Seems i wasnt that wrong after all. Thanks for the clarification, Moini !

However, i dont understand that part:

Moini wrote:I set dpi to 600 or even 1200 on export, and make sure it's still the same in the print dialog to get the exact same size. Works perfectly with Inkscape / Gimp (I print from Gimp, its printing dialog is the best one I've ever seen on my computer ).

Why such a high dpi ??

Do you still print it at 300dpi from Gimp ?

My printer specification says:

printing resolution up to: 6.000 x 1.200 dpi
I'm just trying to get the optimum when I print birthday cards or calendar pages Probably, with the paper I'm using, this won't make much of a difference, though.

I don't understand what you are asking in the second question

Well if you research printing, the advice you get everywhere on the internet, is that the standard dpi for printing is 300.

But you said, you export between 600-1200dpi and i was wondering if you still print that file at 300dpi.