DPI: that's dots of ink on a piece of paper. The more dots of ink that are laid down within an inch, the sharper the image will appear. Sharpness is resolution.

300 dpi is a standard benchmark for an excellent print. 200 dpi will still produce a good image. 150 dpi can be acceptable if you're viewing the print a few feet away.

Most desktop printers and photo labs print digital images at less than 300 dpi. Why? Often, the ink jets on those printers aren't capable of putting 300 dots of ink in a given inch. Also, it takes longer and uses more ink when printing at a higher dpi, so some printers are set at a lower dpi for speed and economy.

So why should you care about high resolution?

It depends. If you have 4x6 snapshots, then 300 dpi scans are fine for archiving. You can still print a good looking 7x10 enlargement.

For a small wallet-size picture, scan at 600 dpi so you can enlarge it and retain more detail. Got a photo of a group of people? 600 dpi will allow you to zoom in and crop.

Slides and negatives are smaller so they're scanned at a higher dpi rate. Better to have too much resolution. You can always go down in size; you can't go up without losing quality.

TIFF or JPEG file format: JPEG wins

At Nostalgic Media, we deliver all photo, slide and negative scans as JPEG images. JPEG is the most universal format. The images from your digital camera are JPEG. 97% of the pictures on the internet are JPEG. You can easily send JPEG images by email. JPEG images can be viewed and shared on nearly all digital devices.

TIFF images are specialized and used for high end applications such as printing and professional photography. TIFF files are massive; up to five times larger than JPEG images; often too big to send by email. Furthermore, TIFF files cannot always be opened on common digital devices. You'll likely need special software such as Photoshop to open and view TIFF files.

We can deliver TIFF files for an additional charge. Contact us for the details.

A scanned photo has more resolution than you will see on a computer monitor or TV

A pixel is an individual dot on the screen. More dots mean higher resolution. Monitors cannot resolve at the same sharpness as a printed photo. This chart shows that the pixel density increases as the monitor gets smaller. However, you will view the image at a greater distance as the monitor size increases. You'll view your iPhone (326 ppi) at about 15 inches. You'll watch that HDTV (48 ppi) on a couch ten feet away.