Why can CSI use gif, bmp, jpg or jpeg graphic files to print mouse pads?
Gif, bmp, jpg and jpeg graphic files are “screen” graphics files and are only 72 or 96 ppi. They look beautiful on a computer monitor, but are not high enough resolution to print on a mouse pad (or on paper, for that matter). Try printing your 72 ppi artwork to a 300 ppi or higher resolution laser printer and you will see what we mean. Digital cameras generally use jpg images. The reason they can be printed is that their jpg images have very large dimensions and making the dimensions smaller increased the resolution. For instance, a 2 mega pixel camera creates a 72 ppi jpg image that measure about 16″ x 24″. When the resolution is increased to 300 ppi, the size decreases to a little less than 4″ x 6″. Some graphics programs, such as Photoshop, will let you increase the resolution of an image by merely typing a bigger number into a dialog box. This does not work. Here’s why. Resolution is actually measured in “pixels per square inch.” 72 squared is 5,184 and 300 squared is 90,000. 5,184
