what is considered normal/good resolution if you want your pics to come out nice in gimp? should I just set the x/y to both 0 and let gimp figure it out?
help!
well, thank you for that description, (and currently mine’s set at 120 x 120 ppi) …basically, I’m looking for an ideal number of what to enter…what would you put in…what do you currently have in your gimp?
The image (photo) will likely have a native pixel size. That is, the actual size of the image in pixels. This is what it is. 
So if you don’t modify the image through resizing in some way, this is the highest “quality” you’ll have with your image. The image resolution will matter when it comes time to print normally, but even in that case you’ll normally want to avoid resizing the image (usually).
If you’re creating digital art from scratch in some way, I would consider what you want to eventually do with the image. If it’s to print, I would err on the side of larger. I have no idea what total size this might be, but if you have an image that you want to print at something like 10 inches wide at 300ppi for a high quality print, it will require a canvas size of 3000px wide (as an example).
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thank you!
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You’re welcome! It’s a bit of a confusing topic for newcomers, but I promise if you keep at it a while you’ll find it becomes second nature. 
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so do i need to click calibrate when i enter a new number?
The problem is that I’m not quite sure which dialog you might be referring to - could you possibly add a screenshot of what you’re seeing? You can just drag and drop images onto the post editor to upload it automatically.
huh, keep trying to post an image, but it won’t let me…
basically, it’s from edit-prefrences-display(gimp)
well, no, you don’t …just answered my question for anyone who wanted to know
Oh, this is a totally different thing! Unless you actually know your monitor pixel density, and what your OS is scaling things to, just leave it to Detect automatically.
There’s three different “resolutions” to understand. Let’s start with the one you don’t care the least about: dpi (dot’s per inch). This refers to how many little droplets of ink the printer will put out. There’s a physical limit to it (construction of the printer/color-head) and a very, very high class calendar shows a resolution (given in lines/mm) that equals +/- 160 dpi. Now that you’ve read this, you can forget about it
Second in line is your monitor’s physical display resolution. My home TV set can do full HD (1920 by 1080 pixel) and the image is about a square-meter in size. My cell phone can do the same resolution (full HD) on a surface smaller than a postcard. The ppi-number (pixels per inch) is very different. Most notebook and PC screens offer a resolution of 96 ppi (72, 120 and 192 are rare but do exist). Go with the flow - use the number that fits your hardware, so that at 100% view every photosite on the camera sensor is represented by a pixel on the monitor and eventually also a dot of ink on paper.
As you know: size matters. In the end it’s all about the size of the image, either on a monitor-screen or on paper. Print sizes are easy: If you print an image on A4 paper, the long side shall show a resolution of 1920 pixels/dots. On A3 you want the image to be 2560 pixels/dots on the long side and on A2 3840 pixels/dots give a smashing result. Nobody needs more/higher numbers, because if you go taller in size, you will most likely watch the picture from a bigger distance. No matter what some fine-art buff will tell you: 30 by 45 cm (roughly 11 by 16.5 inches) don’t need a higher resolution than 2560 * 1714 dots/pixels (4MP)…
These measurements and numbers are valid for the “classic” 2/3 ratio (Full-Frame, APS-C, 24 * 36 mm). If you shoot with a 4/3, mFT or square (6 * 6) sensor/film, you have to adapt them. Simply multiply the length (in inches) of the long side of your paper by 160 (give and take) and there you go. If in doubt, go for a factor of 150 or 155 because there’s always a small white area on the paper’s edge.
@lizardbreath I modified your topic title to make it more descriptive. If you have something else in mind, you should be able to change it. Hope you found your answer. If not, continue asking .
lol, thank you, afre…and thank you everyone for all your answeres…wow!
The absolute resolution of an image is measured in pixels.
Changing “resolution” in Gimp dialog changes nothing for your file data !!!
Some people write yet stupid things like “we want 1200x800 pixels, 72 dpi images”…
Did I missed something?
@alex666 I believe that the dpi / ppi would affect how an image is interpreted by the display, OS, app and printer, esp. when it comes to scaling and info density.
How would it affect the display?
@Jacal I don’t know for certain because I am not familiar with this subject. I am thinking of printers; high dpi displays; image or vector editors that use real world measurements.
Thanks, I’ll have to look at this sooner or later. Be well!