: Image size/dimension/resolution can be a confusing topic; I routinely encounter graphic design professionals who don't really understand how it works. The main thing to keep in mind is that "size"

@Sarah814

Image size/dimension/resolution can be a confusing topic; I routinely encounter graphic design professionals who don't really understand how it works.

The main thing to keep in mind is that "size" could be either size on screen or size on paper when you print the image out. Pixels are different sizes in different contexts, so the pixels in the image get packed into different sizes. This difference is also a major source of confusion about resolution because people get confused between the resolution of the monitor and the resolution of the printer.

Wrapping your head around the difference is best done with an example. Let's say you have an image that is 600 pixels tall. Meanwhile your monitor is set to 1440x900 and is 8 inches tall (I picked those numbers because that's my monitor.) 8 / 900 is .0089 inches per pixel; 600 x .0089 is 5.34 inches. So the image is 5.34 inches tall on screen.

Now you want to print out your image. The print resolution is set to 200dpi, so 600 / 200 is 3 inches. The image is 3 inches tall on the printed paper.

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