How Image Resolution Matters In Digital Photo Prints

What is Image Resolution?
 
Theoretically, the resolution of pictures can be described in a number of ways. However, by ‘Resolution' we usually mean the pixel (Picture Element) count or the number of total pixels in digital imaging. Image resolution is how much detail a picture holds and can be measured by quantifying how close the lines in the picture can be to each other and yet can be visibly resolved. The higher the resolution is, the more detailed is the image.
 
One should know that size does matter when it comes to digital photo prints. That is why most people use the best online photo printing services to get the highest quality pictures printed as understanding the relationship between the image size and image resolution can be very complex for a layman. To make this easier for you, here we delve into some of the basics of how image resolution concerns digital photo prints.

Understanding the Basics
 
One has to understand that if an image looks good on the screen, it does not necessarily mean that it will come out as the exact same quality of the image when printed. But why does this happen?
 
Usually, the pictures which are printed are grainy, or blurry or pixelated, i.e. you can see several big square tiles like structures broken down instead of the entire picture. This happens because the images are made with pixels of a specific height and width which determine the resolution of the picture. In units, we call it dots per inch (dpi) or pixels per inch (ppi).
 
Most of the times, when you increase the resolution of a particular image in your laptop or computer or any other display devices, it does not show any difference to the image because your LED screen cannot detect it. The difference clearly appears when you print the pictures. When the resolution of the image is increased, the pixel size becomes smaller and more packed together making the picture quality better and more printable, and vice versa. This is the reason resolution matters so much when it comes to digital print images.
 
For your knowledge, a low-resolution image is usually 72 ppi and a high-resolution image is around 300 ppi.

How to calculate Megapixels?
 
Find out the dimensions of the image - its height and width - and multiply them. For example, if the image size is 4608x3456, it equals 15,925,248 (in pixels) which implies it is 16 megapixels (approximately).

How to determine the printable size of a digital image?
 
You need to divide the height and width of the image with 300 as 300 ppi is suitable for high-quality prints.
 
As per our previous example, if we divide the numbers by 300 we get 15x11 size print. This means you cannot increase the printable size to any larger than this or else it will cause the picture being pixelated.
 
Now that we have a basic knowledge and understanding about what effects the image resolution has on digital printing, let us follow some tips and tricks to make our printing experience and image quality better. Or, you can utilize the services of best online photo printing!

Tips and Tricks for Better Quality Images:
 

• Always put the camera or settings of any of your devices at the highest resolution. Even though high-resolution images take up a lot of storage space and take time to load on web pages, they are still a better option if you want the print pictures to be of good quality.
• You can use a trick and slightly decrease the resolution if you can compromise a little on the picture quality for print.
• It is best advised not to use image resizing in your computer software as resizing an image into a larger size will ultimately result in a pixelated print of the picture.
• For any old photographs, which are usually of a very low resolution, you can use a flatbed scanner and enlarge the scanned image. This will prevent from old images being printed in low quality.
• By knowing the exact size and quality that you would need and setting the resolution accordingly in advance can result in a much better end product and also save money.
• If at all these still confuse you or you do not have the necessary pieces of equipment at home, you can always bank on commercial services and get your pictures printed through the best online photo printing services available.

 
So, it all comes down to one thing, size does matter!