Re: filmscanners: RE: filmscanners: Pixels per inch vs DPI

[Arthur Entlich <artistic@ampsc.com>]

Pixels are pretty much only in an array and rectangular on a monitor or
a continuous tone printer output.  Since inkjet printers use a sub-array
of randomized dots to create the illusion of a specific pixel color
(usually blended into its surrounding "pixel" neighbors, as well), there
is rarely any true delineation of rectangular pixels in inkjet prints,
which use either dithering or an error diffusion pattern to create blends.

Art

SKID Photography wrote:

 > Rob Geraghty wrote:
 >
 >
 >>I think that's an important point - we all have different standards.  I
 >>have a photographic print on my wall at home which everyone I know loves,
 >>yet it was made from ordinary 100ASA Kodak print film back in about 1982.
 >> It's quite grainy!  The point is you would normally view it from halfway
 >>across the room, not at reading distance.  For me, this is the sort 
of situation
 >>where a print with less than 240 ppi would work.
 >>
 >
 > I think it's important to remember that film grain and pixels are not 
interchangeable terms.  One can have a
 > really grainy image, blown way up and still have a full rich tonal 
range and luminescence, where as the same
 > cannot be said for a digital output that has too few pixels.
 >
 > I think that part of it, is that pixels are aligned in a grid and 
have a rectilinear shape, whereas the film
 > grain is (for lack of a better description) schoastic in arrangement 
and irregular in shape, thereby providing
 > more tonal information than pixels.
 >
 > I know that there are those out there that think grain is a dirty 
word and that the presence of it, limits the
 > possible size or viewing distance of a print.  But go to any museum 
with a good photo collection and you will
 > see that the masters were easily able to get beyond those artificial 
limitations.  That is not to say that the
 > grainy images will be the same as an 8x10 contact print. Separate but 
equal.
 >
 > Harvey Ferdschneider
 > partner, SKID Photography, NYC
 >
 >
 > .
 >
 >