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In the recent past, all screens were pretty much at 72ppi. On a screen, the resolution is measured in pixels per inch (or pixels per centimeter).
#What is the best resolution for photos on facebook software#
The good news, is that formula is the same for DPI and PPI and if you need a 300 dpi print, the file can be in 300 ppi as the print software converts it, but I’m getting ahead of myself. If you never print, then you don’t even have to worry about DPI, as you will never be dealing with dots. The higher the number, the higher the resolution. So the measurement of print resolution is how many dots are in an inch. (Of course printed resolution can be much higher than 300, but let’s just take 300 as a standard (It still is the standard) as it’s sufficient for most projects and this is a beginner’s guide so I won’t get into line screen and other things that you don’t need to understand this concept.) If you were to print at a lower resolution such as 80dpi, the dots are large enough to be seen with the naked eye. This is a high resolution file, because it’s a high concentration of dots. This means if you take a 1-inch square and count all the dots of ink, there are 300 dots in that 1 inch area. The average standard for print is 300 dpi. (the dots are dots of ink on paper or other surfaces). Very soon you will know what they mean.īoth of these terms are used to describe density which is otherwise known as resolution. Some people just call everything DPI, and they are probably from the analog age and never updated their vocabulary for digital, which is ok. Very often you will hear these terms used wrong. I will use inches, but substitute cm for inches and everything works exactly the same. These would be DPCM (dots per Centimeter) or Pixels/cm (Pixels Per Centimeter) if you’re outside the United States. There are 2 terms you will hear, DPI (Dots Per Inch) and PPI (Pixels Per inch). When I drag or copy and paste this “smaller” butterfly into the main image, (How to combine photos in Photoshop) suddenly it’s huge! Why? I’ll explain all this. Let’s take this image, I opened the rulers (Ctrl/Cmd+R) and it’s just over 11 inches.Īnd this image below is less than 10 inches. In order to really grasp this, its best to watch the video above, where it’s clearly explained in a slow and concise manner.
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This lesson will explain all this to you. Or maybe someone asks you to deliver an image at 300 dpi, or at 2,000 pixels on the long edge. I’d say this is a fundamental skill you need to understand. Once you understand image resolution and size, it becomes much easier to work. Has this ever happened to you? You choose a photo and you drop it into another picture and suddenly the size isn’t what you expected? This happened to me the first time I used Photoshop.
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