[geeks] Does size matter

[Geoffrey S. Mendelson]

On Mon, Aug 25, 2008 at 12:54:17PM -0400, der Mouse wrote:
>Note that this is down in the "printer resolution" range, and, surprise
>surprise, printers are one place where we pretty much _do_ have working
>resolution independence.

The problem with printers is that they are all speced in dots per inch,
not pixels per inch. Since a color printer has to print several not quite
overlapping dots to make one pixel, the information would be usefull, 
but printer manufacturers don't seem to want to give out that information.

According to many experts, (you can STFW for more information) the 
"sweet spot" is around 250 pixels per inch from a printer. That's the
resolution where the most information is processed by the human eye.

It depends upon viewing distance, magnification (if you are wearing glasses,
etc), and it's not a hard and fast number, I have seen as low as 230 and as
high as 280 ppi.

As for printers, things like dot size, ink spread and the distance between
the dots all matter, and so do the number of colors, etc. A black printer
only needs to print one dot per pixel, a cmyb (cyan magenta yellow) printer 
needs 4, and a 9 color printer needs 9. 

I wonder if you really had display resolution independence, how much 
processing power you need behind it. 

Geoff.
-- 
Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel gsm at mendelson.com  N3OWJ/4X1GM