The easy way to determine the correct aspect ratio and size of images you need is to start with the largest image and work backwards.

 

Print Images, Screen Images - or both?

The first thing you need to decide is if you need print quality (or large size) images.  If your sure that you don't then don't create them as they take up space.  However if you think you will want to produce printed images, then you need to plan for it from the beginning.  This is important because in general screen images do not work well as print images.

 

 

Why screen images do NOT work as print images!

When you create a screen image you are working in pixel sizes.  However when you are dealing with print images you are working in physical units of measure (ProImage uses inches - but you can adapt this to Metric units if you need to).

 

A key factor for print images is DPI (Dots Per Inch).  This is a multiplier that is used to determine the print quality of the image.  A decent print image will typically be 200 DPI where screen images are less than half that (we use 100 DPI for calculation purposes).

 

As a result if you take a 100 DPI screen image and print it at 200 DPI, your image would print at 1/2 the size you expect it to be!

 

 

How ProImage manages print images

When you enter a size for your print images in ProImage, you use a scale of 100 = 1 ( a value of 100 equals one inch ).  You also enter a value for the DPI setting (the default is 200).

 

ProImage creates print images by multiplying the DPI setting by the scale size.  For example to create a print image that is 5" x 3" at 200 DPI then the actual bitmap would be created at 1000 x 600.

 

This creates a physical image that is large enough to be drawn into the print area at the correct DPI value without shrinking the image.

 

If you need print images, then use them to determine the aspect ratio for all other formats.