When it comes to digital arts, it's important to understand the resolution units of measurements.
Image and video quality is determined by a few factors. Continue reading to find out what these factors are.
Pixels
The main resolution unit of measurement used to determine digital image quality is pixels.
A pixel is the smallest and most basic unit in digital graphics.
Pixels are a combination of dots or squares that make up all digital graphics. Without pixels, we wouldn't have images, videos, GIFs or even text.
Our screens recognize pixels by each unit and combine them to make a picture. Each pixel has its own geographic location on the screen and a color.
This determines the way an image looks, its color, and other crucial factors.
The more pixels in an image, the higher the quality the image will be.
But pixels can be intricate. Since our screen translates pixels into images, all images appear differently on different screens.
In today's world, we have several devices, the three biggest being:
- Smart phones
- Tablets
- Desktop computers
Any graphics artist needs to ensure all images and video are responsive, which means look attractive on all devices.
You'll need a plethora of imaging sizing options, which is when you'll need a resolution converter.
Pixels Per Inch (PPI)
The golden image rule is the more pixels an image has, the higher quality it'll be.
But it's impossible to load a bunch of pixels in one image; we're limited by our photography equipment and our computers.
To measure image resolution, we determine the number of pixels in an inch of the photo.
This is simplified as PPI. This number determines how many pixels are in a square inch on a picture.
Imagine your image is a grid, each cell is an inch squared. A group of pixels in each cell make up the image's resolution.
When discovering the PPI of an image, you're estimating how many pixels are in one cell.
The higher the PPI, the higher quality an image is.
If you had to choose between a phone with a 50 PPI screen or a phone with a 200 PPI screen, you'll choose the phone that uses 200 PPI in the screen.
The highest a PPI can go is 570; after that, the human eye is unable to perceive any differences.
PPI Uses
PPI is commonly used to determine the quality of an image.
PPI is also used by camera manufacturers the determine the quality of professional DSLRs (digital single-lens reflex camera) and camcorders.
PPI is not only used to determine the quality of a photo or video, but also the quality of a screen. PPI is used to determine the quality of smartphones, TVs, and laptops.
This goes the same for pixels by meter and millimeter.
Image Size
The final factor that determines image resolution is the actual image size. But image size is a little different than the PPI.
The higher amount of pixels determines the image quality, but the same thing can't be said for image size.
Image size is the dimensions that make up the entire size of the image. You can use inches and millimeters to measure image dimensions. You'll use height x length to express the image size.
A larger image won't necessarily get you a higher quality image.
You'll have to determine the ideal image size by the image itself. This depends on the colors, angles, lighting, and the format you're saving the file.