How does a scanners resolution dictate an images resolution?
A scanner’s resolution (like 600, 1200, etc.) is a measure of the maximum number of dots into which it can convert the image. Imagine the green field again as your original. It’s 3888 golf balls long and 2592 wide. When you adjust the scan, you’re just telling the scanner how much of the field to examine, as well as which balls to look at or ignore. The balls don’t change in size or spacing, nor does the field–it’s like cropping a print in the darkroom. If a scanner is set to 300 dpi, a resulting 8×10 is 2400 x 3000 dots (area resolution). At 600 dpi, it’s 4800 x 6000 pixels–a big file. At 1200 dpi, it’s 9600 x 12,000 pixels–a huge file. The number of dots per inch multiplied by the total area determines the image’s area resolution. Does file format alter resolution? No. However, the compression can affect your image. Compression means that the computer disregards some image information so that it can shrink the file size. There are two types of compression: lossless and lossy. Loss
