Resolution - what's that all about?
Time and time again you'll see me writing about "high resolution". Once you've been involved in this project for a few weeks - or even a few days - my nagging about "high res jpegs" will drive you up the wall. To lessen the stress for all concerned we're going to explain it here!
Every photo is made up of little squares of colour - these are called pixels. You will have seen them if you keep zooming in to a picture. Sometimes you see a "pixellated" image where you can actually see the squares. You don't normally notice them, which is why there is a problem with projects like this.
Resolution is described in pixel dots per inch: dpi
Every photo is made up of little squares of colour - these are called pixels. You will have seen them if you keep zooming in to a picture. Sometimes you see a "pixellated" image where you can actually see the squares. You don't normally notice them, which is why there is a problem with projects like this.
Resolution is described in pixel dots per inch: dpi
Why do you need high resolution?
We want to be able to :
1) Print photos - printed photos need a resolution of 300 dpi
2) Include photos in digital scrapbooks. Since the graphics for these are designed to enable printing they are all created at 300 dpi and the photo resolution has to match or it looks all wrong.
Scanners can scan at 300dpi (and higher ...), no problem. When you take pictures with your camera they will be 300dpi, or higher, so no problem. Your phone may only take low resolution photos.
The problem is the internet ...
1) Print photos - printed photos need a resolution of 300 dpi
2) Include photos in digital scrapbooks. Since the graphics for these are designed to enable printing they are all created at 300 dpi and the photo resolution has to match or it looks all wrong.
Scanners can scan at 300dpi (and higher ...), no problem. When you take pictures with your camera they will be 300dpi, or higher, so no problem. Your phone may only take low resolution photos.
The problem is the internet ...
Printing resolution v Website resolution
Websites only need a resolution of 72dpi. When you load photos onto Facebook and other sharing sites they are reduced in size. Facebook, understandably, don't want to pay for massive servers to store millions of photos at high resolution when they don't need to. They shrink them to 72dpi and you don't notice because the photo looks fine on the screen. However, if someone copies a photo from your Facebook page and then tries to print it, it will look very grainy and be of very poor quality.
Remember - Facebook and other sites (including this one and our My Heritage family tree site) shrink resolution so although you might have uploaded a high resolution photo, when others try to get it it will be LOW resolution.
Early camera phones also use very low resolution. A picture from your phone is no good unless it's a very new takes-photos-like-a-camera phone.
It's very sad that there are entire generations whose only experience of photos is phone and Facebook. It's the subject of another article but basically this is causing years of heritage to be lost, even though it appears to be progress.
Remember - Facebook and other sites (including this one and our My Heritage family tree site) shrink resolution so although you might have uploaded a high resolution photo, when others try to get it it will be LOW resolution.
Early camera phones also use very low resolution. A picture from your phone is no good unless it's a very new takes-photos-like-a-camera phone.
It's very sad that there are entire generations whose only experience of photos is phone and Facebook. It's the subject of another article but basically this is causing years of heritage to be lost, even though it appears to be progress.
Scanning Guidelines
Every scanner works differently so read the manual (you can usually find it online if you don't have a printed version ) or go into programs in your start menu and find the scanner that way rather than through a desktop shortcut. There will usually be a settings sub-menu.
If you have a very small (say 2 inches across) photo or one that needs lots of repair work then 600 dpi is useful but 300 will do.
You can put several photos on the scanner bed at once. Please leave a small space between them. Your scanner might pick each photo up as a separate image. If not I can separately them digitally when you send me the file.
If you have a very small (say 2 inches across) photo or one that needs lots of repair work then 600 dpi is useful but 300 will do.
You can put several photos on the scanner bed at once. Please leave a small space between them. Your scanner might pick each photo up as a separate image. If not I can separately them digitally when you send me the file.
Just do your best!!
