C Squared Communcations Podcast #8
Resolution: Line Screen and DPI – Part 1
Welcome to the C Squared Communications Podcast, where we outline some of the basic concepts of print and media production. C Squared believes that the more you know about media production, the more successful your next project will be.
This segment discusses line resolution and acts as a follow-up to our discussion of the terms RGB and CMYK.
Resolution is a term for the depth of detail or “fineness” of a graphic image or print quality. Its related terms, Line Screen (analog) and Dots Per Inch (DPI) (digital) are the actual measurements used to determine resolution. Always note that the larger the line screen number or dpi, the higher the resolution or quality of the image.
Line screen is derived from commercial offset printing using film negatives as the transfer media between layout board and metal printing plates. Film screens were used to break up photos into smaller dots for printing. If photos weren’t “screened,” they would print as black blobs in newspapers, not photos. Screen fineness (or quality) is measured as lines per inch – with the larger number of lines per inch translating into a finer screen and thus a higher quality printed image. To compare: silk screen (T-shirts) print ranges from 85 to 133 line screen; newsprint ranges from 100-133 line screen; offset printing ranges from 133 (4 color flyers, trade show hand-outs) to 200 line screen (coffee table books, National Geographic).
The advent of computer graphics and digital technology created a new measurement of resolution - Dots Per Inch (DPI). Again, the higher the number of dots per inch, the finer the image and thus the higher the quality. To relate DPI to lines per inch: dots per inch is twice the line screen. 300 DPI is the equivalent of 150 line screen; while 400 DPI is the equivalent of 200 line screen.
On the next podcast, we'll continue discussing resolution.
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