pixel dimensions/resolution

[photokiwi]

hi there,

Ive noticed that resolution by pc monitors are 800*600 or 1024*768pixels which is fine if your output is for the pc screen, but ive noticed that my photos from my nikon d80 are wider than this format. Is this becuase most people dont print at these dimenions/ratio? Sorry ive havent done much printing before so i dont know what sort of standard dimensions people print at. I would be interested to hear what dimensions people print their photos at. cheers

[Edmund]

Hi Photokiwi, Welcome to the best forum around. I believe that you got a few things mixed up. Printing resolution and pixels for a print are not quite the same as it is for the monitor. Pixel dimensions for each particular monitor can and most likely will be different sizes. Where it gets confusing is that resolution for printing and for on screen use (like e-mail or the web) are different. Print resolution and screen resolution are measured in different terms. You will need many more pixels for a good quality print then for the same image displayed on your screen. A good site that explains resolution pretty well is www.scantips.com
What format are you shooting your images in JPEG or RAW. In any case you will have to resize each image depending on what size you want to print it to. ie 5X7 or 4X6 or 8X10 etc. This is usually done by cropping the image and using the print preview dialog box,page setup dialog box and lastly the print dialog box. It can get confusing but there are many tuts out there on setting up every thing for a final print. I'll hunt around for some links and add them later.
Eddie.

[Codebreaker]

There are a few factors that need to be considered with digital images and their sizes.

First point to accept is that Digital Images from cameras have no physical size. They are just a number of pixels arranged in a rectangular format. Different cameras have different pixel dimensions and may have a different aspect ratio - that is the ration of width to height. Still no physical size yet.

Aspect Ratios may be 3:2, 4:3, or 16:9 ( or maybe even something else)


Computer displays also work on Pixel Dimension and also come in a variety of different aspect rations. I've seen 4:3, 5:4 and 16:10. The Pixel Dimensions can also be set by the user with some of the Windows Displays control - and there are many different settings depending on personal preferences. The one exception is LCD displays. These have what's known as a Native Resolution and this is the only one that should be used.

The point now arises as how all these different pixel dimensions and aspect ratios fit together. Well basically they don't match 100%. You may find that a camera image will show up on the screen with either black at top/bottom or even each side. Or they can be stretched to fit which may cause distortion. You'll get similar problems with printing as paper sizes don't match the image aspect ratios.

For printing there is a question of resolution or the number of Pixels Per Inch. Your camera image as previously said is just a number of pixels. To print you have to set a number of Pixels Per Inch (the resolution). Typically a number above 200PPI will give a good print but the ideal number depends on your printer.

There is some discussion of this on my web site which might help.

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/colin_w/pixels_and_ppi.htm

Finally displays do have Pixel Per Inch parameter but this is only of any interest if you want to see accurately on screen the physical dimensions of a print if you use something like Zoom > Print Size. Mostly you don't need to bother about this.

Colin

[photokiwi]

thanks for the feedback, i really appreciate it.

[Not4wood]

As far as posting on the net.

What I do is keep the image for printing in a final directory named Complete and then I will lower the quality for the net and name this directory something like Web or Web Share. This way these smaller images are easier to insert into either an email or for posting here like in the Village Gallery. They have smaller sizes and its a lot easier to send out via the email programs.

In printing you will try to keep your image the max pixel you can with whatever size you make to get the best quality in your print in the final size.