Bohemian Drive

Re: Dpi

June 14, 2008 9:46 am

Well, I'm no expert at any of this, and any illustrators out there can feel free to correct me. I had always heard that the resolution for monitors should be 72dpi. In reality, though, you can't control the actual size the image will appear as everyone has a different monitor configuration. What really determine how large the image will appear on the web are the pixel dimensions (a 12in image at 100dpi and a 1in image at 1200dpi would show up on the screen at the same size.) To my knowledge, 72dpi is just an imposed standard.

I assume that Scott McCloud works at 1200dpi so that he can zoom in and use broad marks for fine details. I also assume that any work he posts on the web is subsequently reduced to 72dpi. In my case, the question of fine details is moot as I do all my line art on paper with a brush. This may be a dying art; you hardly ever see hand-drawn webcomics any more (Minus, a notable exception), and even the print industry is moving toward digital ink. In my opinion, there are clear advantages to working digitally, but the results are unsatisfactory (see if you can spot the episodes that I drew with a pallet.) I think that people out there are looking at something like Minus and thinking that its visual style is "quaint" or "cute" when, in fact it is clearly in a higher class aesthetically than most other things out there. I have digressed.

Anyway, I keep a copy of all the comic panels at 300dpi so the option remains open for a print version if I ever finish this thing. By the way, keep in mind that you're talking to a fellow that taught himself to do this stuff in the late 90's, who holds a BFA in painting, and never touched a computer in art school. So, you know, caveat emptor.

— Kit Roebuck

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