Resolution

Resolution is the term used to describe the amount of data in a file, screen display or printed image etc.

Resolution is usually expressed in or - both are the same animal. The more Dots Per Inch the greater the resolution is said to be (and the greater the file size will be). Just to confuse us, you might also hear other units of measure (centimetres, picas). Avoid such distractions like the plague. The rest of the World might be going Metric but us ‘mouse jockeys’ are going to stick with inches!

Resolution terminology is about as understandable as Klingon. It's a mixture of words derived from printing, photography, computer graphics, and pre-press services.

Another way to express resolution that you should be aware of is that of pixel dimensions - 640 x 480 pixels for example. This is a direct report of how much data is present, independent of the image size (the pixels could be 1/300^th of an inch or an inch in size - in the case of the 640 x 480 image there is always 307,200 of them).

The important thing to remember is that resolution is critical when scanning - so that you collect enough information to get the best image at the size you want to print it.