Im ages intended to be view ed on a com puter screen

are best m easured directly in pixels,because the output

devices,m onitors and projectors are generally thought
of in term s of the num ber of pixels they display, 600
x 800 for exam ple.
D eterm ining the resolution of im ages intended for print
m ust take into account several additional criteria. First
of all, an im age on paper is m ore com m only thought
of by its physical size.
A lso the output devices, printers, are m easured in tw o
w ays. The m ore com m on m easure is the size of the
sm allest dot of a single color that the printer can m ake,
generally described by how m any can fit in an inch,
hence dots per inch or dpi.
This describes how sharp the printer can m ake a single
color im age in the color inks available.This is appropriate
for im ages referred to as line copy w here there are no
interm ediate tones, only the w hite of the paper and
the solid application of one of the colors of the ink
available, generally cyan, m agenta, yellow and black.
Im ages of this type should be scanned at the full
resolution of the printer. In actual practice, it is difficult
for the hum an eye to tell the difference of anything
over 400 dots per inch,so no m atter w hat the resolution
of the printer, scanning line copy over 400 dots per
inch yields dim inishing returns.
In order to sim ulate grey tones, printers use a schem e
know n as halftoning, w here clusters of the dots the
printer is capable of are used to sim ulate shades of
grey.In color printing the im age is divided into its cyan,
m agenta, yellow and black com ponent and each is
printed in a halftone pattern, w hich the eye and brain
reconstruction into the full spectrum of colors.
These halftone patterns are m easured in lines per inch.
It is this halftone frequency that determ ines how sharp
an im age a given printer can produce.
It is quite rare for this m easure to be published in
printer m anuals, and m odern color printers especially
use variants of the schem e for w hich this halftone
frequency is not as obvious as w ith a traditional printed
halftone.
The best schem e is to m ake a assum ption of w hat the
halftone frequency is based on the full resolution of
the printer.
N ew laser printers w ill have a halftone frequency about
85
C olor inkjet printers printing at 720 dpi have a halftone
frequency about 90 lines per inch and at 1440 dpi,
about 130 lines per inch.
The general recom m endation for the correct
resolution for an im age is one and a half to tw o
tim es the halftone frequency, depending on how
critical you are.
So for a black and w hite laser printer, you w ould
have to have betw een 120 and 170 dots per inch.
A s w ith any application, you w ant to have enough
data to get a sharp im age, but no m ore.
The im ages on the accom panying page dem onstrates
the practical im plications of this.
The top row of im ages range from the top end of
the range, 180 dpi, a little m ore than tw ice the
halftone frequency, to 105 dpi, only about 125% of
the halftone frequency.
Its rather difficult to tell the difference betw een these
im ages. O n close inspection the higher resolution
im ages seem sharper, but its hard to identify specific
details that contribute to that difference,and w ithout
the 180 dpi im age to com pare it to,it w ould be easy
to assum e the 105 dpi im age w as as good as it could
be.
The 80 dpi im age at first glance looks pretty good,
but on careful inspection, the curves of the lam p
base and the outer edge of the cats eye reveal the
stair step pattern of the square pixels that m ake up
the im age. The points of the tufts of fur on her chest
are not as sharp and w ell defined.
In the 60 dpi im age the pixels can be seen throughout
the im age to a careful view er, and at 40 dpi, they
dom inate the im age.
Image resolution for print
800 dpi 400 dpi
200 dpi 100 dpi
Line copy examples
180 dpi 140 dpi 105 dpi
80dpi 60dpi 40dpi