http://desktoppub.about.com/library/glossary/bldef-ppi.htm
Heres a page that will help.
From what I'm reading there is a bit of confusion about dpi and ppi. First of all photoshop defaults screen resolution output at 72 ppi(Pixels per inch) and print output at 300 ppi. herein lays the confusion. Most all your laser printers output in dpi.(dots per inch). Screen resolution and print output are two separate worlds.
To print a high quality photos no matter what you software outputs, you still need a high Pixel count from your camera. A low pixel count is not going to print good quality no matter what you set either the dpi or ppi settings in photoshop. A 2.1 megapixel will give you a good quality small photo but as you expand, the size the pixels spread and the quality goes down. so in a nutshell, if you what hi quality photos large or small , you need a camera that will give you the highest pixel count. With all that said it's still good to save all your work in the highest ppi setting, I do. For a good all around simple camera You will probably need to spend 500 to 1000. Pros will spend more. I have a Canon, its good.
Heres another ditty I found.
1) In computers, dots per inch (dpi) is a measure of the sharpness (that is, the density of illuminated points) on a display screen. The dot pitch determines the absolute limit of the possible dots per inch. However, the displayed resolution of pixels (picture elements) that is set up for the display is usually not as fine as the dot pitch. The dots per inch for a given picture resolution will differ based on the overall screen size since the same number of pixels are being spread out over a different space. Some users prefer the term "pixels per inch (ppi)" as a measure of display image sharpness, reserving dpi for use with the print medium.
2) In printing, dots per inch (dpi) is the usual measure of printed image quality on the paper. The average personal computer printer today provides 300 dpi or 600 dpi. Choosing the higher print quality usually reduces the speed of printing each page.
hope this helps....