What is 72 dpi

Image resolution describes the amount of detail an image holds. Higher resolution images are crisper and more detailed. In a lower resolution image, the fine differences in color disappear, edges become blurred, etc. There are many kinds of resolution that can apply to film, television, etc.

Screen resolution is measured in pixels per inch PPI. A pixel is a tiny square of color. A monitor uses tiny pixels to assemble text and images on screen. The optimal resolution for images on screen is 72 DPI. So, DPI means that a printer will output tiny dots of ink to fill every inch of the print. This means that that images should be a minimum of dpi x dpi or 90, dots per square inch to produce a high resolution print.

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If you do want the size of image that 72 dpi will give, it is a much better argument to scan at 75 dpi, see chapter 9 about integer divisors. I don't know why we would want a 6x4 inch photo to appear exactly 6x4 inches on our screen, the original paper size no longer seems important.

But even if we calculated the actual size precisely for our own monitor, our image cannot likely repeat that feat on a different monitor. It would be impossible on two screen sizes, like x vs.

Accurate size in inches is simply not a consideration for video screens, it cannot be done. Inches don't count in video. Only pixels count on the screen. We do need to care about the accurate size of printed images in inches.

But that's really only because the paper size is measured in inches, and it allows us to know how much of the paper area will be filled.

But a video screen is measured in pixels, and the video system only knows how large the image is in pixels. Knowing the image is x pixels tells us a lot about how it will fit on a x pixel screen. That's like knowing an image is 8x10 inches on 8. But to complicate things, not all screens are x pixels, same as all paper is not 8.

The point here is that monitor size varies, and they are obviously not 72 dpi. Screens work only with pixels, there are no inches and there are no dpi on the screen video system. It is very common to hear the advice : "Monitors can only show 72 dpi so scan all your web images at 72 dpi".

For sure don't believe that. It is the world's worst imaging advice. You only have to test it once to know it's wrong. On any one monitor, we can easily see that there is obviously a tremendous difference in viewing the same photo scanned at 72 dpi and at say dpi. The dpi image is much larger on the screen, about 3 times larger. It contains correspondingly greater detail. And our so-called 72 dpi monitors will certainly show all of that detail, because the screen simply presents every image pixel, one by one.

We are obviously NOT limited to 72 dpi, and 72 dpi is not a valid concept. The dpi image is simply larger on the screen, and this was probably our goal, our design for the image.

Or perhaps it is too large, so that it may or may not fit our screen size without scrolling, but all the pixels are there. No pixels are discarded to limit out at some magic 72 dpi resolution limit. It is not a limit, it is not real, this fictitious 72 dpi property simply does not exist. If it were said that a certain printer has a dpi resolution limit or scanning color prints beyond dpi won't help show more detail, then those limits are real.