Posted by Mike McDermott on
You are right about the photos looking great on the computer screen. The computer screen’s phosphor lends brightness to the image’s color, making it visually appealing. The color on your computer screen is created by light shining through Red, Green, and Blue (RGB) phosphors that cannot be exactly reproduced with digitally printing Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black (CMYK) inks. Even more importantly, the digital photo has been optimized for fast loading on the web page by reducing the file size through file compression. This means that the original high-resolution photograph had pixels permanently removed to make the file smaller. The smaller file might look good online (72 dots per inch), but when the image is printed (300 dots per inch or higher), it will look pixelated. For more information about raster graphics, please refer to our IMAGES video.
