Pixels to Inches in Design Software

Canva

Canva sets units when a design is created rather than afterwards. Choose Custom size and pick in, cm or mm from the dropdown before clicking Create.

For an existing pixel design, use Resize (Canva Pro) and switch the unit there. Otherwise convert manually: 8.5 × 11 inches at 300 DPI is 2550 × 3300 pixels.

Microsoft Word

Word works in inches or centimetres according to your regional settings, and lets you type any unit into a size field. Entering 96px in an image width box is accepted and converted.

To change the default, open File → Options → Advanced and set "Show measurements in units of".

PowerPoint

Slide size is set in Design → Slide Size → Custom Slide Size, in inches or centimetres. A 16:9 slide is 13.333 × 7.5 inches, which is 1280 × 720 pixels at 96 PPI — the reason PowerPoint exports at that size by default.

Adobe InDesign

InDesign is a layout application, so it thinks in physical units by default and nothing is resampled when you change them. Open Edit → Preferences → Units & Increments on Windows, or InDesign → Preferences → Units & Increments on macOS, and set Ruler Units for Horizontal and Vertical independently. Points, picas, inches and millimetres are all there.

There is a faster route for the same setting: right-click, or Control-click on macOS, on the corner where the horizontal and vertical rulers meet, and pick a unit for both at once. Existing guides, grids and object positions do not move — only the numbers you read change.

Because the layout is resolution-independent, the pixel question only arises at export. Decide the output density there and size placed images to it: a full-bleed A4 page at 300 DPI needs artwork of at least 2480 × 3508 pixels before bleed.

Procreate

Procreate lets you choose the unit when the canvas is created: open the Gallery, tap the plus icon, choose New Canvas and enter a width and height with inches selected instead of pixels. That choice sticks — the readouts you see later use the unit the canvas was created in.

To change dimensions or density afterwards, go to Actions → Canvas → Crop and Resize. The width and height fields appear in the canvas’s original unit, a chainlink button locks the aspect ratio, and a Resample switch controls whether the artwork is scaled with the canvas or the canvas is simply cropped around it. DPI is set in the same panel.

One consequence is worth knowing before you start: changing the DPI changes the physical size in inches, millimetres and centimetres, but not the pixel count. Set the density first, then the size, or you will get a canvas of the right dimensions and the wrong resolution.

Microsoft Paint

Windows Paint, still widely called MS Paint, separates the two things you might mean. File → Properties sets the canvas size and does offer Inches, Centimeters and Pixels as units. Image → Resize does not — it takes a percentage or a pixel count and nothing else.

That makes Paint workable for checking a size and awkward for producing one. If you need an exact pixel count for a physical target, work it out first and type the pixels in: 4 × 6 inches at 300 DPI is 1,200 × 1,800.

Paint 3D is no longer an option. Microsoft deprecated it and removed it from the Microsoft Store in November 2024; existing installs still run but receive no updates, and Microsoft directs users to Paint and Photos instead.

Pixlr

Pixlr keeps the two operations apart in the same way Photoshop does. Image → Image Size resamples the artwork, with an Aspect constraint checkbox to hold the proportions and a Smoothing checkbox for the interpolation. Image → Canvas Size changes the area around the artwork without rescaling what is already on it.

The detail that matters for print is what comes out at the end: Pixlr states that its web and mobile apps output at 72 DPI, while the Mac and PC applications do not reduce resolution. If you are preparing something to be printed, that makes the browser version the wrong tool — not because the pixel count is wrong, but because the density tag on the exported file will be.

Google Docs, Slides and Sheets

Google Docs uses inches or centimetres from File → Page setup. Google Slides offers inches, points, centimetres or pixels in File → Page setup → Custom, so it is the one Google editor where you can move between the two directly.

Google Sheets has no inch or centimetre option anywhere. Right-click a row number or column letter, choose Resize row or Resize column, and you get a single box — "Enter a custom height or width" — with no unit to pick.

That means a spreadsheet has no fixed physical size until it is printed, and the print dialog is where the size is actually decided: File → Print sets the paper size, margins and scale, and the sheet is fitted to them. Sizing columns to hit a measurement on paper means adjusting, printing and adjusting again rather than typing a figure in inches.