Best dpi for website images?

[L.Adlon]

Hello. For images that I will have on my webpage (shown at their actual size), is there a particular dpi I should be using?

 

I have some images I did for print, which are at 300dpi, which I shrunk down to about 320x400 for the webpage. The current ones are still 300dpi though (after being scaled down). Is that a problem... a benefit.... or irrelevant?

 

Does that extra dpi only serve to increase file size, with no visual benefit? If so, should I convert them to something like 72dpi (keeping the 320x400 size they are at currently)?

[davej]

DPI isn't exactly relevant. It is a question of typical screen resolution and what percentage of the screen you plan to use for these images. If you plan to fill the screen with the image then a monitor that is 1800px wide is going to need an image 1800px wide for maximum quality. But maybe your webpage displays as a maximum width of 1200px, so then the image needs to have 1200px width if it will be displayed as 100% of the width.

[L.Adlon]

Ya, I sort of figured it probably wouldn't really matter. The images in question are displayed at 320x400, locked. I just changed them now from 300dpi to 72dpi, as I figured that only served to make the file size bigger. Visually looks the same, but I just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing out on some info about it being important in this case.

 

Cool, thanks.

[davej]

Any image can be resized downward (and usually should be), but resizing upward does not provide an increase in resolution. Certainly you should try to match the images to the size they will occupy on a typical monitor.

[L.Adlon]

Oh, ya, for sure... I scale the images down to the actual size they will be on the site, as that also eliminates the need for the HTML to scale it (which, I'm assuming, is a pretty low-tech scale!). Scaling them UP is obviously a bad idea in any aspect!

 

I was just not sure about DPI. The images I'm using, in this case, are for print (as opposed to the usual ones I made specifically for the site), so they have DPI's of 300, as opposed to the usual 72 (which, I'm assuming is still the general standard for regular web?).

 

I wasn't sure if that 300 DPI should be reduced, or was beneficial, or irrelevant.

 

As I mentioned, I reduced the DPI to 72 for those images, as I figured myself the added resolution was irrelevant in this case... plus it made for much smaller files.

 

Looks fine. All good. Just wanted to ask and be sure.

 

Thanks, davej.