For an online photo gallery, you should upload low resolution photos so they download quickly and don't take up too much storage space.

The term “resolution” has evolved from its printing days to take on new meaning in the digital world. Resolution traditionally referred to “dots per inch” (dpi), that is, an image with a higher dpi is said to have higher resolution.

Today we see resolution referring to screen area of monitors and file size of digital cameras. This sense of the word is referring to the width multiplied by height of the image, such as 640×480, 800×600 or 1,024×768. These are fine for online viewing, but just what do these numbers mean when we want to migrate back into a print world?

When we are looking at a computer monitor, the actual size of an image will depend on the monitor. Basically, because a monitor has a fixed number of pixels (Macs usually have 72 pixels per inch and most PCs are 96 pixels per inch) there really isn't much need for higher resolution images.

Getting the same detail from a print of that same image will depend on the print size. Bottom line, you won't be able to print an 8×10 from a lower resolution picture, without having some serious loss of quality.

Technical terms aside, resolution still comes down to describing one thing: “How does it look?” To that end, it helps to decide what the picture will be used for ahead of time, but when in doubt, do what I do — take two.