Printer resolution

I am attempting to begin using Nik Sharpener. To set up a preset for an 11 x 14 inket print I am asked to put in the printer resolution. My Epson R1800 manual simply states that it can print at up to 5760 x 1440 dpi. What resolution should I enter into the Nik Sharpener preset?

Epson files should normally be some multiple or divisor of 360. It could be 180, 720 or even 240 DPI. I save the print files going to my Epson 4800 at 360 DPI. That number seems to work for nearly all situations. The even divisors avoid forcing the software to use interpolation.

You can ignore the 5760x1440 number. It has no real bearing on how your files need to be prepared. Your 11x14 preset, will require a file 3960 pixels in the 11 inch dimension and 5040 pixels in the 14 inch direction if you print borderless. Somewhat smaller in each direction if you want a border. Still 360 DPI. 

Nik should see the DPI number and use that to help determine the sharpening amount it will apply.

I also use 360 dpi for my 3880.

Joseph's question is about something different, specific to the Nik Sharpener Pro output sharpening plugin. The plugin wants actual printer DPI -- dots of ink per inch of paper -- as one of the settings. When you talk about 180, 240, 360, 720 and so on for Epson printers, those are measures in PPI -- pixels per inch -- that get fed to the printer driver before RGB pixels have been screened into CMYK dot patterns. The Nik plugin uses DPI to adjust its level of output sharpening, not PPI.

Joseph, I would select in the Nik Sharpener Pro output sharpening plugin whatever the actual DPI resolution of your R1800 printer is based on the printer driver settings you are using. At maximum resolution settings in the driver, the R1800 does 5760 x 1440 DPI. If you've set the driver for "best photo quality" with highest detail, whatever the R1800 driver calls those settings, then pick the 5760 x 1440 DPI value in Nik Sharpener. If you're using a lesser resolution setting in the driver, then you'll have to do some digging to figure out what actual DPI the printer drops down to.

If the R1800 driver help or manual doesn't specify, Google might lead to another resource somewhere that gives the details. Otherwise just pick something that you think may be close and go from there -- probably 1440 x 1440 or 2880 x 1440 I would guess.

Sorry, I made an assumption that Nik worked like Photokit Sharpener where it reads the file size and DPI and adjusts the sharpening accordingly. Looks like a similar function, but using a different set of numbers.

A contact with Epson via chat room indicates that, if I want the absolute best possible output I would put in 5760 x 1440 but that the normal resolution would be 2880 x 1440 as suggested by Royce. That is what I will use. Thanks again for the assistance.