How to Choose the Right PDF export resolution (DPI)
When exporting your plan to PDF, the DPI (dots per inch) setting controls how much detail your plan contains. The best DPI depends on the goal of your export.
Maximal resolution
The DPI selection drop-down includes a Max option. Selecting this option automatically optimises the DPI to the highest achievable resolution for the selected page size. This can be useful when maximum detail is required (e.g. as-built sheets), but often results in very large PDF files.
If file size becomes an issue, exporting only a subset of canvasses using Canvas Selection (“Canvasses” drop-donw) or lowering the DPI are recommended.
In rare cases, exporting many canvasses and/or very large floor plan canvasses at high resolution may cause the browser to become unresponsive due to memory limitations. In that situation, splitting the export per canvas or per subset of canvasses usually resolves the issue. If problems persist, Hysopt support can be contacted at support@hysopt.com.
DPI for printing
For printing, a DPI of 300 is recommended and is sufficient for crisp, high-quality prints. If a drawing contains very fine lines or small text, the DPI can be increased up to 600. Values higher than 600 DPI rarely improve print quality and significantly increase file size.
DPI for digital use
For digital use, the DPI should be selected based on how much detail needs to remain readable during normal or occasional zooming. In most cases, moderate DPI values are sufficient and provide a good balance between clarity, export speed, and file size. Increasing the page size is generally more effective than increasing the DPI when better on-screen readability is required.
Use case | Typical goal | Page size | DPI setting | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
System topology overview | View overall structure without zooming | A3 – A2 | 200–300 | Smaller file size |
Casual zoom for system details | Inspect components, pipes, symbols | A2 – A1 | 300-600 | Balanced clarity and performance |
Detailed label reading | Read small text and dense labels | A0 | 300/Max | Larger file sizes, are details readable. |
Hardware and Performance Limits ⚠️
Depending on the size of your model and the selected DPI, you might reach the memory limit or other hardware limits of your browser during export.
This can cause the export process to slow down, fail, or even crash the browser.
If that happens, try lowering the DPI or select a subset of all canvasses to export again.
If you’re really stuck and need a higher-resolution export, please contact support at support@hysopt.com — we’ll be happy to help find a solution.
PDF Viewing Recommendation
PDF exports of Hysopt models that include high-resolution floor plans can easily reach several hundred megabytes. Many PDF readers struggle to open files of this size, which can result in slow loading, laggy navigation, or incomplete rendering of schematics.
For the smoothest experience, we recommend opening large PDFs directly in a web browser (Chrome, Edge, Firefox). Browser-based viewers handle large files significantly better in most cases. Traditional desktop viewers such as Adobe Acrobat Reader tend to perform slower with very large documents.