Tutorial: Resolution
Level:    Beginner
Date:      May 2010

Hello.

Keeping the correct resolution on your images is important. When publishing pictures on the web you want to keep the file size as low as possible and still keep the quality as high as possible and when sending your digital images to the photo developer you need to have the correct resolution to get a quality photo.

abbreviation used:
DPI( Dots Per Inch)
PPI (Points Per Inch)
RES (Resolution)



Pre processing
Scanning images and sketches

All scanners have their own program that'll allow you to make your own settings.
I would always suggest you use the highest possible resolution when scanning images
but if you just have a quick sketch or something unimportant you can speed the scan
up by lowering your resolution to 72-75dpi

How can you determine your scanners highest resolution?
You'll find this option on your scanners interface, that's the program you got along with your scanner.
The most common scanner today comes with up to 800dpi
and for a few bucks more you'll get a 1200dpi scanner.
After that you can buy professional scanners with higher resolution but today you wont really need it.

Image processing in Photoshop.
Once you got your scanned image into your computer you should open it in Photoshop.
I'm gonna post several guides on tips and tricks using Photoshop but for now all you
need to know is this:
Publishing your image on the web = 72dpi
Sending your image to a photo developer or printing your image = 300dpi.

From Photoshop
Image / Image Size

Set the resolution to either 72 or 300

Post processing
Your Printer also have a preset max resolution it can handle.
You'll find the settings using Page Setup from Photoshop.
If you don't have Photoshop you can find other free alternatives but this guide emanates from Photoshop.

The image below shows a Page Setup window from Photoshop.
The red circle shows the resolution options. If you don't know the resolution of your image you can just assume it's 300dpi or less so set the DPI to 300. For this example I had scanned an image at 1200dpi
and wanted to print it out again, that's why I use 1200dpi.

The green circle shows the color settings, first one is for better text and the second one is for better image.
Obiously you want a better image, check it!

The blue circle shows the blackness of the ink. You want to put this as high as possible, 100% black.