A Short Guide to Understand Image Resolution and Pixel

Image resolution and pixel, what and how does it work?

Do you get a problem when you shared your picture online? Does it look blurry or low quality when you print a photo? However, how it is possible when it looks good on screen but not the printed one?

We got you a short review to understand more about image resolution and make your life easier. Then, you can work more efficiently and manage the photos correctly for a particular usage.

What is Image Resolution?

Image resolution or PPI refers to how many pixels shown per inch of an image. If an image has a higher resolution means there are more pixels per inch or PPI. It creates a higher quality image and a sharper image.

If an image has a lower resolution means it has fewer pixels. You can see it when you try to zoom in or stretch the image. The image will look blurry if it has a lower resolution.

What is a Pixel?

Digital photography is a dividable thing. You can clearly see it when you zoom in or stretch the image. You will see the image formed small tiles mosaic that we call pixel. The number of pixels and their distribution can affect image resolution.

Sometimes resolution counted by the width and height of an image and the total number of pixels in the image. For instance, an image has 2048 pixels wide x 1536 pixels high, which means it has 3,145,728 pixels or 3.1 Megapixels. If the megapixels in the camera increased, so does the maximum image size it can produce.

Printing Resolution

For Professional Publications

Photography professionals with high-end printers usually require the image to be up to 600 PPI for printing needs. If you need to print images for professional needs, make sure to contact the publisher regarding the image resolution before sending the digital image.

For Regular Needs/Non-Professional

Printers like laser, inkjet, or other general used printers are best to print images in the range of 200 to 300 PPI or higher. A 200 PPI image is suitable for an image that only needs to “look good”. Meanwhile, a 300 PPI image recommended for photographic printing. For a large poster printing, you will need a 150 to 300 PPI image. It depends on how close the image display will be.

On-Screen Resolution

Printed image and screen image are different since we need to measure the pixels dimensions on the monitors. Use PPI for images printing and use the pixel dimensions for on-screen display.

It is because the pixel dimensions are what will determine the image size and image display quality on the devices or web.

Web

The idea of saving images in 72 PPI resolutions has been believed for years. However, it’s a misconception that PPI value or image resolution is the deciding factor of image quality for displaying an image on the web. In fact, it is about image dimensions.

Every monitor has a different resolution. That’s why it is hard to design an image that displayed perfectly on the web with a different type of device and display. Technology has developed over the years, so does the image display quality. Apple’s new retina displays are the most popular image display currently, applied on the recent iPhones, Macbooks and iPad.

Projector

Similar to web images, projector images need to match the projector’s pixel dimensions. Projectors have their specific display dimensions like computer monitors. For instance, most of the projectors with 4:3 ratio have a display of 1024 x 768 pixels. Thus, a 1024 x768 pixels image with a 72 PPI resolution would be an ideal image size for image display on the projector.

Conclusion

Now you have it all. Understand more about resolution and pixel will help you work efficiently with digital images. You finally can make the best choice for image printing and digital image sharing. If you want to turn your old family photos or your travel photos into digital form, consider contacting photo scanning service Perth. The photo scanning experts of Scan Ur Pics can help you to save those precious memories. Click here to learn more about photography checklist.