GIMP Version: 2.8.14
Operating System: Windows
GIMP Experience: Basic Level

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I'm doing 8x10 inches magazine page layout that's going to be printed at 300dpi. It contains body text and some high resolution high quality pictures. The whole image is around ~2500x3500 pixels.

The recommended 9-12pt font size of body text is obviously unreadable if I set image to 300dpi from the get go. Increasing font size to 36pt to fit the page won't work, because it gets severely crippled/pixelated after exporting image to pdf. Although it looks ok in Gimp. But even if I work at default 72dpi I have to bump font size to 26pt before changing image to 300dpi at the end. This approach does not cause text distortion. Decreasing resolution means lower quality, not doing that. Where are they pulling this recommended 9-12pt out of? And what is the right approach here?

You are using the wrong tool. Gimp is not the best for this and confusing text units. pts are not pixels and you should not be scaling anything.

You should be using a Desktop Publishing applicationsuch as Scribus see: https://www.scribus.net example:




Failing that a Office application such as LibreOffice would do.

Ahh I see... that is very unfortunate. I can't fully switch to Scribus though, since the page is heavily manipulated with dark background and white text. So basically preparing the page in Gimp and then exporting it to Scribus to add missing text is the way to go here? But what type of file? tiff?

OK, If you need to use Gimp. Start off with your 8" x 10" @ 300 ppi page = 2400 x 3000 pix Remember Gimp is a bitmap (raster) editor that works in pixels, not real world units.

edit: That is File menu -> New
In advanced options set the horizontal & vertical resolutions to 300and the size to 8" x 10"

However you can enter the text in points (1 pt = 1/72 of an inch) and Gimp will do the conversion.



Ask your printer about formats for submitting the page. Gimp will rasterize the text for all the common export formats and jpeg should be avoided, it will introduce artifacs around the letters. Try lossless compressed png or tif.
You could also try PDF. However not too sure if it keeps text-as-text in Windows.