Image Files - some technical information ...
There are many different image formats that pictures can be saved in. Many of these store an incredible amount of detail about an image.
What are Resolution and DPI?
Resolution and DPI (dots per Inch) are often used interchangeably, but they are quite different.
Any digital image is composed of pixels. The pixels are the small colored square dots that can sometimes be seen when images are enlarged too much, or if you look at your screen close enough. Resolution is the number of pixels in the horizontal direction by the number of pixels in the vertical direction. For example, a picture with 1200 pixels at the horizontal direction and 2100 pixels at the vertical direction would have a resolution of 1200 x 2100 pixels.
As you've probably noticed, nowhere in the above definition it is said what size the pixels are. This is where the DPI comes in. DPI is simply Dots Per Inch. A picture with 100 x 100 resolution would be 1 x 1 inch when printed at 100 DPI, and 100 x 100 inch when printed at 1 DPI!
There's a tradeoff. The bigger the resolution, the bigger the image is. It will take more disk space, occupy more memory when loaded, and will take longer to load or email. On the other hand, the bigger the resolution, the better the image looks when printed.
If you want to display a photo on your computer screen, there is a limit to the number of pixels that can be displayed.
Most computer screens have a resolution of 72 dpi, and your inkjet printer will typically print high quality photos at about 300dpi - the quality of most "weekly" type magazines.
Most images that come from scanners or digital cameras have enough pixels to
print an A4 sized photo at between 300 and 2400dpi. Image Shrinker will
convert these files to something more manageable that will still display nicely
on your computer screen, and print well on most printers.
Most images can easily be converted to files that take up between 20 and
120kb of disk space!
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