Chapter 4 Perspective, Scene Design, and Basic Animation 101
video display to show the line. You might have to tap 50 dots to make a line
one inch long. The resolution of this line is said to be 50 dots per inch
(dpi). The higher the dpi, the higher the resolution.
A fax machine prints at 300 dpi. A standard
laser printer prints at 600 dpi. A photographic or
fi ne-quality printer might print as high as 1200 dpi
or higher. The clarity of an image is direction-
ally proportional to the dpi. The smaller the pixel
point, the more dots per inch can be generated
and the clearer the picture. However, the image
being printed must have a corresponding dpi.
You cannot simply take a low-resolution
image and make it bigger. If you do, the image
will become blurry, or pixilated, Figure 4-11.
The reason pixilation occurs is the process of interpolation that the computer
performs. By breaking apart the word interpolation, you can construct the
correct meaning: inter is the space between and polation is a polishing
Low-resolution image High-resolution image
Figure 4-11. An image that is low resolution cannot simply be increased in size. As size goes up, resolution goes down.
This can cause an image to become blurry.
CHEAT CODE: CLARITY
When designing digital images, clarity
refers to how clearly images are defi ned
with either line or pixel density. Blurry,
faded, too light, too dark, or pixilated
images are not clear or have poor
clarity.