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Resolution Explained

What you must understand to create quality prints with your digital camera.

A digital image is a rectangle made up of many small squares of color called pixels.  The number of pixels across the width and height of the image is called the resolution. An image with 640 pixels across the width 
and 480 pixels high has a resolution of 640x480.  The more pixels in the image file, the higher the resolution.  

Many cameras offer a choice of resolutions from 640x480 up to 2400x1800 or higher. The larger the file    resolution, the fewer images that will fit on your camera memory card. Commonly the size of a digital camera image is proportionate to a 4x5.3 not a 4x6.  

Images viewed on a computer monitor are displayed at 72 pixels per inch or ppi. Each pixel is displayed as a square of color. An image with 640x480 resolution will be displayed on a monitor as 640/72=8.9 inches by 480/72=6.7 inches, or 8.9 x 6.7 inches in size. Therefore an image with 640x480 resolution is a good size image to view on  a monitor, email to a friend or use on a website. Unfortunately, this resolution is too small
to make a quality photographic print.  

 Here’s why…

At Advantage One, we use the most technically advanced equipment available today to produce beautiful photographs from your digital files.  In order to produce a “photo quality” print, we must print at 300 dpi (dots per inch); have at least 300 pixels for every inch of the print. In order to produce a “photo quality” 4”x6” print we need a file resolution of  6”x 300dpi=1800 pixels across the width and 4”x 300dpi=1200 pixels in height. Therefore we prefer a file resolution of about 1800x1200 or higher for optimum 4x6 prints. This resolution would require a 2.1 megapixel digital camera (1800x1200=2.1 million pixels).  A quality 8x10 print would need an image file with a resolution of 3000x2400 or higher.  Smaller resolution files can be printed, but the results will be less than optimum. Below are examples of what a 4x digital print will look like at various resolutions.

 Image files can easily be sent to us electronically over the internet using our Silverwire software. 

640 x 480 4 x 5.3 at 120 dpi	1200 x 800 4 x 6 at 200 dpi	1800 x 1200 4 x 6 at 300 dpi

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