How many pixels in an inch? and.....

[emcinc]

Okay, How many pixels are in an inch? What does the 640x480 mean? or 832x624? When you are creating a web document should you create it to fit a monitor size or something else? In DW4 how important is the window size pop up menu and exactly what is it used for? I know these may be simple questions but I am a bit confused on what it all means!
Thanks for your Help!

 

[TulsaJeff]

640x480 is called resolution as well as 800x600, 1024x768, etc.

You set the resolution under the display settings of the control panel on your pc. Simply put...if I set the resolution to 640x480... then an image 640x480 would completely fill my screen.

That same image on an 800x600 would have space all around it.

I beleive there are 72 pixels to an inch if I remember correctly.

I set my screen to 1280x1024 which means I could fit 2 of those 640x480 images side by side...it would be very small though.

As a general rule I normally build to 550x400...this is because browsers have toolbars and status bars and menus that take up space at the top and bottom of the browser. This allows for the user to never have to scroll horizontally.

I think according to statistics the largest magority of users are set to 800x600 so you could probably be justified in building your site to this resolution.

In dreamweaver the pop-up feature allows you to set the size of the window that you want to pop-up. I use pop-up windows for guestbooks and such... I do not want to cover up the page that is already open so I will make it slighly smaller.

Tek-Tips has a pop-up window in the top left corner upon entry. This is a prime example. Ya' Gotta Love It!X-)

 

[TulsaJeff]

I need to clarify the pixels per inch....

pixels per inch define the sharpness or clarity of an image. You can set the resolution(pixels per inch) to anything you like but it affects the quality of the image.

I usually stick with 72 Ya' Gotta Love It!X-)

 

[emcinc]

Thank You for the excellent info!! But you say "resolution", so does this mean there are for example 72 dots in a square inch, or on a line? Because in Dreamweaver they usually ask for example a width in pixels, so I gather that it is 72 pixels (dots) in an inch line? Or maybe my question should be what is the standard that DW4 uses in other words how many pixels = an inch in Dreamweaver, and is this universal or again based on something else like resolution? Also does it make a difference on what size screen the veiwer uses? I thought mine was 15in. But it is actually 11.25 inches wide x 8.5 inches high. Now I'm probably getting into an area that doesn't really matter but the pixel thing is really bugging me! What sayest Thou to this?

 

[TulsaJeff]

Well..monitors are measured diagonally from bottom left to top right. It probably is 15" measured that way.

Monitor size is a factor but only in the sense that it will make the objects smaller or larger to accomodate the resolution they have selected to use.

I think the standard is actually 72 pixels per inch. However pixel conversion to inches is not concrete like inches to feet or meters to kilometers. It is actually quite abstract and all depends on the user settings. As far as you are concerned...a pixel is about the width of a pencil line. Ya' Gotta Love It!X-)