What is DPI and resolution?
Resolution and DPI (Dots Per Inch) are often used interchangeably, but they are quite different. Any digital image is composed of pixels. The pixels are the small colored square dots that can sometimes be seen when images are enlarged too much, or if you look at your screen close enough. Resolution is the number of pixels in the horizontal direction by the number of pixels in the vertical direction. For example, a picture with 1200 pixels at the horizontal direction and 2100 pixels at the vertical direction would have a resolution of 1200 x 2100 pixels. As you’ve probably noticed, nowhere in the above definition it is said what size the pixels are. This is where the DPI comes in. DPI is simply Dots Per Inch. A picture with 100 x 100 resolution would be 1 x 1 inch when printed at 100 DPI, and 100 x 100 inch when printed at 1 DPI! There’s a tradeoff. The bigger the resolution, the bigger the image is. It will take more disk space, occupy more memory when loaded, and will take longer to l