What is a high resolution digital file

A digital photo is primarily a computer file, consisting of 0 and 1. Your device converts the image into digital data and then saves it for storage. What are these formats and how to use them? The publications, especially the popularization documents, contain images: photos, graphics, drawings, diagrams, maps … These images are saved in file formats digital devices with various characteristics:. Warning: before manipulating your illustrations files photos, graphics, scanned drawings, diagrams, cards … , always save the original file of the original image.

The digital image is formed of a set of points, or pixels. The resolution — high or low — or definition of the image is measured in dots per inch dpi , dpi dot per inch , or ppi pixel per inch. More the image contains pixels, plus it can be printed in large dimensions. The number of pixels induces the weight of the image, as well as its physical size according to the resolution of the output device.

To get the correct impression, choose a resolution of at least dpi. To lighten the files, most websites and many electronic documents created with a word-processing or slideshow software use small and weak images resolution. Avoid using them: they are not printable or displayable in full screen. Better search for the high resolution digital files on photo stocks.

A logo is a protected image that must be integrated as it is, without modifying its text, form and colors. Today, we usually only see pixelated images when images are enlarged or zoomed-in too much, or printed from a lo-res file. Count your pixels Lo-res images have around pixels, or squares of color, per inch. Plus, they are very lightweight fewer pixels , so they help websites load quickly.

Hi-res images are at least pixels per inch ppi. This resolution makes for good print quality , and is pretty much a requirement for anything that you want hard copies of, especially to represent your brand or other important printed materials.

Prevent printing regrets because ink is expensive! Use hi-res photos for sharp prints and to prevent jagged lines. Hint: Make sure your phone-camera is taking a high enough resolution to look good when printed. Is my image hi- or lo-res? Heavy file size can be a clue, but not in all cases.

You can also have Hi-res audio does come with a downside though: file size. A hi-res file can typically be tens of megabytes in size, and a few tracks can quickly eat up the storage on your device or be cumbersome to stream over your wi-fi or mobile network. Thankfully, storage is much cheaper than it used to be, so it's easier to get higher-capacity devices. And technologies such as MQA see below have arrived to help tackle that.

That's not all: there are also several different hi-res audio file formats to choose from, all of which have their own compatibility requirements.

The relative merits of each of the formats can be argued, but the most crucial issue will be the file's compatibility with your chosen products and software. MP3 not hi-res : Popular, lossy compressed format ensures small file size, but far from the best sound quality.

Convenient for storing music on smartphones and iPods, but doesn't support hi-res. Great sound quality but it's uncompressed, meaning huge file sizes especially for hi-res files.

It has poor metadata support that is, album artwork, artist and song title information. It is lossless and uncompressed so big file sizes , but not massively popular.

FLAC hi-res : This lossless compression format supports hi-res sample rates, takes up about half the space of WAV, and stores metadata. It's royalty-free and widely supported though not by Apple and is considered the preferred format for downloading and storing hi-res albums. It comes in 2. MQA hi-res : A lossless compression format that efficiently packages hi-res files with more emphasis on the time domain. Used for Tidal Masters hi-res streaming, and product support is picking up pace.

The main claimed benefit of high-resolution audio files is superior sound quality over compressed audio formats such as MP3 and AAC. Downloads from sites such as Amazon and iTunes, and streaming services such as Spotify, use compressed file formats with relatively low bitrates — such as kbps AAC files on Apple Music and kbps Ogg Vorbis streams on Spotify.

The use of lossy compression means data is lost in the encoding process, which in turn means resolution is sacrificed for the sake of convenience and smaller file sizes. This has an effect upon the sound quality — those formats aren't telling the full story of our favourite songs.

This might be fine when you're listening to Spotify playlists on your smartphone on the bus on the morning commute, but serious audiophiles and music fans should want better. This is where high-resolution audio comes in. Music CDs are kbps. And they could be that very same recorded file, too. These files are labelled as "Studio Masters" in some cases. With more information on the file to play with, hi-res audio tends to boast greater detail and texture, bringing listeners closer to the original performance — provided your system is transparent enough.

There's a huge variety of products that can playback hi-res audio. It all depends on how big or small you want your system to be, how much your budget is, and what method you'll mostly be using to listen to your tunes. But it's never been easier to get involved, now that plenty of the digital and streaming ecosystem supports hi-res, and especially as popular streaming platforms such as Google Chromecast although not AirPlay 2 do.

These days, even, you don't have to completely abandon your vinyl collection to go hi-res, either; turntables such as the Sony PS-HX let you digitise your vinyl collection by ripping your record tracks into hi-res audio files. Smartphones If you're going portable, smartphones are increasingly supporting hi-res playback.

This is restricted to higher-end Android models, though — Apple iPhones so far don't support hi-res audio out of the box though there are ways around this by using the right app, and then either plugging in a DAC or using Lightning headphones with the iPhones' Lightning connector. Phones that have USB-C sockets instead of 3.

Hi-res audio is increasingly easy to stream wirelessly thanks to new advancements in Bluetooth. More digital players than not support hi-res audio, although again an Apple product is the exception, this time the iPod Touch.

Desktop For a desktop solution, your laptop Windows, Mac, Linux is a prime source for storing and playing hi-res music after all, this is where you'll be downloading the tunes from hi-res download sites anyway , but make sure the software you use to play music also supports hi-res playback.

Apple iTunes, for instance, doesn't support it, even if your MacBook does, so you'll need to buy and download separate music playing software. On a PC? Try JRiver Media Center. Simply plug a decent digital-to-analogue converter DAC in between your source and headphones for an instant sonic boost. This is especially if you'll be storing your growing hi-res library on a NAS Network Attached Storage, essentially a hard-drive with processing built in , which we would recommend.