I stumbled upon this discussion in a Google search. I'm having the same confusion about this. Here's my situation:

Though not a graphics professional, I have drawn many comic strips and now want to put them on the web. I drew them in Flash, so they are vector images. I personally have my computer screen resolution set at 800 x 600, but I wonder what MOST people have theirs set at.

When I export the Flash files as GIFs, I scale them down in the export dialog box to the size (width and height) I want them so that they will take up most of the horizontal area of my screen. But when I scale them down like this, the resolution setting in the dialog box automatically gets lower, and I end up with a GIF at 67 or so dpi. If I try to make the resolution higher, the image gets bigger, and that would make it require scrolling to view on someone's screen, something I don't want.

I can't seem to set the resolution independently of the image size.

I am confused by this. I guess I tend to think of resolution the way you think of it when using a scanner, where the size of the image you are scanning and the resolution you scan at are two different things.

What I am trying to figure out is, is my image displaying at a lower quality because it is 67 dpi? And what can I do to make it sharper? I mean, aren't the pixels smaller at higher resolution, and shouldn't this make an image potentially show more detail?

Is this just a shortcoming of Flash's export filter, or is this just the way it is with every program?

Another thing I'm trying to figure out is, if someone has their monitor set at a higher resolution, like 1024 x 768 or whatever, does that mean my image will display on their screen smaller than it displays on an 800 x 600 screen? I want it to display large enough to be easily readable.

It's damn confusing! What are your thoughts?