To get a printable 300 dpi image I have to render my work several thousands of pixels wide, isn’t that right?
When I make materials for the models, what resolution do these images have to be? Do I make them 300 dpi or same as the screen resolution 72 dpi?
Are your materials TILED? Or are they UVmapped?
What I do, is zoom in on the modeled mesh and render it. If I see pixels, I use a higher quality texture.
Go by “feel”. If it looks good, go with it.
As a general rule, I make all of my maps 2,500x2,500 or larger.
Tiled maps can be smaller, as long as you don’t see any repeated patterns.
My materials are uv-mapped.
So you save your 2500 x 2500 pixel jpg maps in 72 dpi, right?
Is it that if you want the pattern of the texture image to be smaller, you scale the uv-maps bigger?
I usually create my own UVmaps with PaintShop. I add lots of detail. Scaling the map larger only make the pixels larger, thus defeating the purpose of a large texture.