The "resolution" of a picture determines whether or not it is going to be printable. There's a big difference between the resolution of what we see on our screen compared to what our home printer can print or what we can have printed professionally. Resolution is measured in "Dots Per Inch" (dpi). The higher the "dpi" is the more things you can do with it!
The Internet: When you go to get an image off the internet or place it on a website it should be 72 dpi. The reason it's so low is because it'll look great on the screen and will be the smallest memory size possible (so it loads fast). The lower the dpi, the smaller the memory needed.
Documents: Normally documents that you do in something like Word or Publisher are set to work for a normal home printer at 150 dpi. This means it'll look great at home, but won't if you try to take it to a professional printer or send it to the newspaper to be published.
For the Press: In order to get something to look really good when printed in a newspaper, magazine, or for high gloss materials, you should have the resolution set for 300 dpi. This is why people hire a graphic designer to produce logos or printed materials. Most people don't have the software adequate to do this. Images and logos should be done in a professional program like Photoshop, while graphical layout should be done in programs like PageMaker or Quark. If you try using a lower standard piece of software your end result will be fuzzy and you won't be happy with it.
Getting the resolution right will make all the difference in the world as to whether your marketing materials, pictures, images, ... will look good. There's nothing worse than working hard to put something together, and have it look bad to the public. So, be very careful to set your "dpi" to the right level!
Resolution Tips: (approximate resolutions)
Screen Resolution = 72 to 90 dpi
Digital Camera = 72 dpi
Home Printer = 150 dpi
Newspaper = 170 to 200 dpi
High Gloss Magazine = 300 dpi
Professional Printed Materials = 300 dpi or higher
"Resolutions are more than what you do for the New Year!"
