Fuzzy pictures in slideshow

Dontcha just LOVE newbies!? :D

My latest problem - I use the freebie slideshow (I don't have Premium as I only do one small website for a non-profit group - so, yeah, I'm a total non-professional at this stuff). The photos I drop in are all pre-set (by me) to the exact size of the slideshow box (thanks to a great tip from someone on this Forum), and 72 dpi.

But when the slideshow runs, the photos are noticeably fuzzier and less distinct than the original that I dropped in there. I feel like I have cataracts or something.

So I 'optimized' them all - and that didn't help at all. I turned off the 'Retina' option - and that didn't help. I somehow think that 'optimizing' is the culprit, but I can't find any global switch that automatically optimizes all the photos. I dropped in some new, fresh, non-optimized photos -- and they show up just as blurry as the others.

Any ideas folks?

Thanking you in advance ...

Dontcha just LOVE newbies!?

Well yes!

They often have great ideas and use the software in a different way.

The only ones that aren't popular are the ones that complain it doesn't work like product XYZ.

72dpi is Apple screen resolution and since Windows screen resolution is 96dpi the images will be very blurry indeed.

Your images need to be exported (and have to be this or better before you export) at 96dpi if you want the images to appear sharp and focused.

And actually we don't mind newbies. They amuse us. ;))

I don't really fully understand the relationship between manufacturers DPI today. In the past it had a relationship with the dot pitch of monitors, but that is no longer the case, and I've always believed that the notional text DPI is more about the relationship of text to display than graphics.

Many modern display have dot pitches that are neither 72DPI or 96DPI, so I would give it a go at a much higher resolution.

I know my Mac has a notional screen size of 1440x900, but the monitor resolution is actually double that.

The slideshow will be of a specific size, so I recommend producing artwork of exactly that size and/or double that size. I think DPI is pretty meaningless for graphics used for display.

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Originally Posted by gwpriester

72dpi is Apple screen resolution and since Windows screen resolution is 96dpi the images will be very blurry indeed.

Your images need to be exported (and have to be this or better before you export) at 96dpi if you want the images to appear sharp and focused.

And actually we don't mind newbies. They amuse us. ;))

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Please read this page and take special note of the example photos (which are displaying via your computer's video system)
► http://www.scantips.com/no72dpi.html


The OP needs to post his file so we can see what he is seeing.

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Originally Posted by pauland

I don't really fully understand the relationship between manufacturers DPI today. In the past it had a relationship with the dot pitch of monitors, but that is no longer the case, and I've always believed that the notional text DPI is more about the relationship of text to display than graphics.

Many modern display have dot pitches that are neither 72DPI or 96DPI, so I would give it a go at a much higher resolution.

I know my Mac has a notional screen size of 1440x900, but the monitor resolution is actually double that.

The slideshow will be of a specific size, so I recommend producing artwork of exactly that size and/or double that size. I think DPI is pretty meaningless for graphics used for display.

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Exactly!

Just checking something out here.

Gary, here's my expectation.

In a document set up for pixels, I wouldn't expect an exported image pixel size to be changed in size when altering the DPI, because the pixel size is set.

In a document set up for paper measures, I would expect the exported image pixel size to change according to the DPI setting.

If you get my drift.

Yeah, I hear you, Paul. My thinking is when you export an image from Xara at 96dpi with a zoom factor of 100% it is 1:1 and should appear at the same size and resolution when you see it in a browser. If I had another point it is lost to the ages.

Ah, maybe it was this. For print, what matters is the actual pixel dimensions. So if I export an image that on the screen is 960 x 768 at 300ppi the actual size in pixels is 10" x 8". But if I take the same image an post it on the web, the size is 3000 x 2400 pixels, larger than most monitors.

Was that a point? I'm not sure.

When preparing art for a slide show image that is say 600 x 400 pixels, then the image needs to be at least 96dpi at this size to export in a reasonable resolution. If I take an image created at 72dpi @ 600 x 400 pixels and stretch the image to 600 x 400 pixels in Xara the image is not going to be sharp. It is going to be fuzzy. Which I believe is where this topic started.

I tried increasing the DPI to solve the problem, but it doesn't appear to have done the trick. On the left is a 150 DPI image as it appears on the website in the slideshow maker. On the right is same 150 DPI file as it looks prior to being inserted into the slideshow.

Attachment 106258Attachment 106259

Interestingly, as a test I loaded the photo onto the web page itself, instead of into the slideshow thing. It looks perfect on the webpage - crisp and clear! So - somehow, something is happening in the slideshow that makes the photos look blurry. Maybe I'm scrunching the photo ..?.. since the blurry photo isn't the same size as the one I created. 590x432 is the size of the slideshow box, and that's the size I made all the pictures to go in it. But obviously, I need to experiment more with those picture sizes. These are all various artists' paintings ... I'm sure they'll notice. :(

So -- I took the 150 DPI original photo, and resized it to be 596x389 - which is what I get when I do a screen capture of the slideshow in operation. Same exact thing - fuzzy. Maybe Xara's freebie slideshow does this to get me to buy the premium edition ... with CLEAR photos! hahaha

Well, if anyone has any other test or whatever I can try - I'm game. Perhaps if I feel brilliant tomorrow, I'll try embedding one of those free slideshow makers and see what happens with a different slideshow module installed.

[QUOTE=gwpriester;522704]Yeah, I hear you, Paul. My thinking is when you export an image from Xara at 96dpi with a zoom factor of 100% it is 1:1 and should appear at the same size and resolution when you see it in a browser./quote]
My suggestion is that the browser couldn't care less what the dpi is. All browsers care about are pixel dimensions.

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Ah, maybe it was this. For print, what matters is the actual pixel dimensions. So if I export an image that on the screen is 960 x 768 at 300ppi the actual size in pixels is 10" x 8". But if I take the same image an post it on the web, the size is 3000 x 2400 pixels, larger than most monitors

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yes, that's because for print purposes you specify a physical size and the number of pixels to create per inch.

I think I'm failing to get across that dpi is irrelevant online. Pixel dimensions rule online and dpi is totally ignored for images and doesn't exist in some formats.

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I think I'm failing to get across that dpi is irrelevant online. Pixel dimensions rule online and dpi is totally ignored for images and doesn't exist in some formats.

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Exactly, dpi is meaningless. Pixel size is all that matters.

I think what does really cause confusion is that people prepare print documents and then want to output bitmaps that satisfy the print requirements and these are expressed in DPI for the physical medium. So the 4inch square print image is going to be exported from Xara at perhaps 300DPI resulting in an exported image 1200pixels wide and high with (depending on the format) a DPI setting of 300.

On the web and in the digital display world DPI doesn't matter at all. So that 4" image in print is just a 1200pixel wide image.

On my screen, which has by default a 1440 pixel width, it will almost fill the screen horizontally and be too tall to see the bottom. On other people's screens it will be different physical sizes according to their display.

If we had a document set up with pixel sizes rather than physical ones, then DPI has no relevance at all. When exporting for a web page, the DPI has no relevance for display. If you were exporting an image for print or re-import to a print document, then DPI is then important again, because when importing an image the only way to know what physical size the image represents in a print document is the DPI setting and the pixel size.

I don't understand how dpi cannot be relevant for images on the web. I've attached a number of images - these were from hi res tiffs - the first is an image 100mm wide @ 300dpi and the second 100mm wide @100dpi - both resized in PS and saved as quality 10 jpgs. The third image - a screen capture, shows both images at 100% - obviously the one is larger, but the quality of the images appears to be the same. The last screen capture shows both images at the same size on screen with a vast difference in quality. So if you want high quality images on your website viewed at a certain size, the dpi of the images is very important.

Attachment 106334Attachment 106333Attachment 106332Attachment 106335

Did you read through this article posted earlier?
I might help clear things up.
PS: Xara use DPI but really mean PPI.

► http://www.scantips.com/no72dpi.html

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Originally Posted by letsgofishing

I don't understand how dpi cannot be relevant for images on the web.

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Checkout Steve's link.

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the first is an image 100mm wide @ 300dpi and the second 100mm wide @100dpi - both resized in PS and saved as quality 10 jpgs.

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I think this is core to the problem people have with DPI.

You explain that the images have physical a size - 100mm. This is only possible because your document has a notional physical size because it represents a tangible physical medium, such as a sheet of paper. Photoshop is representing a physical medium on the screen.

When you export these images for printing on the paper, the quality of the image when printed depends on the physical properties of the printer and the amount of detail present in the image. A typical choice during export is 300DPI, which means that for every physical inch that you wish to print, the software will provide 300pixels. For a less detailed print, 100DPI will provide 100pixels for each inch of the image according to the size you have made it.

So, the export process is taking a physical size, destined for a physical medium, using the DPI setting to create an image with enough pixels to print at the quality that you have specified. So the DPI setting changes the pixel size of the image.

When it comes to showing those same images on a computer screen, the representation of the image is no longer related to the original physical size in the document, but is simply the pixel dimensions that the image was saved at. The computer does not look for DPI information it simply looks at the pixel size. Any DPI information is ignored.

Your watch example has images varying in size because photoshop is combining the physical size that has been specified, with the picture density that you require for printing, to create an image of the correct pixel size to facilitate printing.

If your computer screen took notice of DPI, then all of the watch images would appear at the same size. They all vary in size because the screen is only interested in pixel sizes. Many image formats do not have DPI information stored in them at all.

DPI is important for the export process when translating a physical measurement into a pixel size. After that it doesn't matter as far as screen displays are concerned.

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Originally Posted by pauland

Checkout Steve's link.





I think this is core to the problem people have with DPI.

You explain that the images have physical a size - 100mm. This is only possible because your document has a notional physical size because it represents a tangible physical medium, such as a sheet of paper. Photoshop is representing a physical medium on the screen.

When you export these images for printing on the paper, the quality of the image when printed depends on the physical properties of the printer and the amount of detail present in the image. A typical choice during export is 300DPI, which means that for every physical inch that you wish to print, the software will provide 300pixels. For a less detailed print, 100DPI will provide 100pixels for each inch of the image according to the size you have made it.

So, the export process is taking a physical size, destined for a physical medium, using the DPI setting to create an image with enough pixels to print at the quality that you have specified. So the DPI setting changes the pixel size of the image.

When it comes to showing those same images on a computer screen, the representation of the image is no longer related to the original physical size in the document, but is simply the pixel dimensions that the image was saved at. The computer does not look for DPI information it simply looks at the pixel size. Any DPI information is ignored.

Your watch example has images varying in size because photoshop is combining the physical size that has been specified, with the picture density that you require for printing, to create an image of the correct pixel size to facilitate printing.

If your computer screen took notice of DPI, then all of the watch images would appear at the same size. They all vary in size because the screen is only interested in pixel sizes. Many image formats do not have DPI information stored in them at all.

DPI is important for the export process when translating a physical measurement into a pixel size. After that it doesn't matter as far as screen displays are concerned.

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Many thanks for that explanation Pauland....