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Steve,
The instruction is a simple one to help people who hardly ever work with digital files. You know those things that happen in the galleries here at TG on occasion... "Hey, it looked so small in that other application" (after using side-scrolling bar for 2 minutes...)
John: I think there are more windoze 'puters out there than macs. So... I design for windoze... 96DPI.
--- I don't understand where that 96 DPI comes in? Where do you use it on the web?
Macs and any mac sourced program (PS/Flash) are based on 72DPI. I do not know much about a mac besides that. Many schools use macs, this article was written for a school, thus mac related.
All my pictures from xara x1 are created at 96 DPI. That is where the 96 comes in.
There's a lot of confusion re this issue. The reason I export at 96 dpi is that it gives the same size image as shown in XaraX on my PC.
For example, if you drag and drop the Owl image from the Xara photo images in the clip art section it imports at 575 x 615 pixels. If I want to retain this size for inclusion on a web page, then 96 dpi does exactly this. However if I export it at 72 dpi it's size is 413 x 461 pixels. Simaraly, if I export it at 600 dpi it's size is 3594 x 3844 pixels.
Basicaly, if you want to retain the same size of image that your viewing on your computer, export at 96 dpi. This ensures that it will import into html page at the same size you viewed it on YOUR monitor. (Of course it will resize on the same or different monitors with different resolutions)
I assume that mac monitors have a standard 72 dpi , thus the reason you get difference in image / drawing sizes when you import into Flash etc.
So yes, pixels are the way to look at images, but I always reduce an image to the required pixel size in XaraX, create a bitmap copy, and export this at 96 dpi.
Egg
did you know you can set your monitor for 72 DPI... It is under the desktop preferences I think... but why would anybody want to I do not know...
Maybe if you really liked programs written originally for the mac... Like Adobe or Macromedia products.
THE SMALLER THE BETTER
Although there's little difference in terms of kilobyte output -- an image with smaller DPI will render faster on any screen be it MAC or PC. (e.g. 72dpi versus 300dpi)
Try this experiment on PHOTOSHOP not Xara. Output a 300x200 pixel image at 600dpi and then export another at 72dpi.
Tell me what you come up with. See the difference in k-size?
Although at this point 96dpi and 72dpi may have very small differnces in terms of render time and kilobyte size, I prefer sticking to the old 72 dpi standard especially with larger images.
Hi Vectorsedge, have you tried saving at 48DPI (96/2) for the web then? I wonder what the quality, size would be. What percentage to you save a .jpg at then? I use 70%. Small enough to be useable, but not look too bad most of the time.
vectorsedge,
I get the same file size... Be it 600 dpi or 96, which sort of makes sense as it's the same number of pixels involved. Or are you talking fractions of a kilobyte?
Confused here! http://www.talkgraphics.com/images/smilies/confused.gif (Nothing new there... http://www.talkgraphics.com/images/smilies/smile.gif
I wonder a lot about this topic myself, and I have been in professional imaging for over ten years. Maybe somebody could share their experience with me. When optimizing conventional photography for the web, what is a good baseline size to start with. Is there a good reference for file size versus screen size out there?
WR1000
http://www.exchrome.com
Hi WR1000,
Welcome to Talkgraphics! On the web size matters, the smaller the size, the faster the picture loads. there is only one type of picture that anybody on the net will wait for, and the quality is not that important there either.
So... the lower the dots per inch you can make the picture and still have it presentable, the better. I use 96 DPI for web work. Drop the colors down to the minimum in gif, and set the quality to 70% in jpg. The quality is fine for the web, and the size is workable.
John, I thought we agreed that DPI doesn't matter for web purposes... http://www.talkgraphics.com/images/smilies/tongue.gif The DPI sampling only makes a difference when printing an image.
WR1000 - an 800 by 600 pixel image will fill up the (PC) browser window (plus a little bit more, because of scroll bar and navigation) if the user is running at 800 by 600 screen resolution. The image will "fit" better with more screen real estate.
If you think in pixels you will know exactly how your image will appear on any screen.
As John said, minimizing the number of colours will help make GIFs smaller. As for the compression of JPGs and 70% - it depends on the application (40% is the lower end of medium on photoshop for instance, and works great for many files) and the type (content) of file. You have to play around with it...
When working (exporting) purely photographic images from Xara X - pull down the antialiasing before exporting to prevent the images from becoming to soft (blurry).