DPI in Storyline...?

May 29, 2013

This could be a question where I severely embarrass myself.....

I know I am producing a course in 16:9 ratio, and that the pixel dimensions are 720 x 405.

However....

If I produce JUST text on the screen, what is the DPI of the slide?

I have an agency I am working with and they are asking lots of questions.

I get that if I insert an image from e.g. iStock I will usually purchase 300dpi, but what about the standard "words" slides?

Bruce

5 Replies
Brett Rockwood

Here's where my response could be equally embarrassing if I'm wrong but I'll forge ahead anyway...

I think if you only have text (i.e. typed with the text tool using an OpenType or TrueType font) that the DPI is irrelevant. When a font is converted to a Flash file (SWF) I believe it retains its vector information and can be scaled essentially to any resolution. If you set the player to "Display at user's current browser size" even with a 720 x 406 design and the user has some mega screen of 3200 x 1800 or something, your text will still look sharp on their screen. That of course would not be the case if you inserted a 720 x 406 image and then tried to view it at 3200 x 1800.

Phil Mayor

Brett Rockwood said:

Here's where my response could be equally embarrassing if I'm wrong but I'll forge ahead anyway...

I think if you only have text (i.e. typed with the text tool using an OpenType or TrueType font) that the DPI is irrelevant. When a font is converted to a Flash file (SWF) I believe it retains its vector information and can be scaled essentially to any resolution. If you set the player to "Display at user's current browser size" even with a 720 x 406 design and the user has some mega screen of 3200 x 1800 or something, your text will still look sharp on their screen. That of course would not be the case if you inserted a 720 x 406 image and then tried to view it at 3200 x 1800.


I think text scales because it is text but images are optimised at the original size.

I would expect the DPI to be 96 which is an issue on retina type screens

Brett Rockwood

Phil Mayor said:

Brett Rockwood said:

Here's where my response could be equally embarrassing if I'm wrong but I'll forge ahead anyway...

I think if you only have text (i.e. typed with the text tool using an OpenType or TrueType font) that the DPI is irrelevant. When a font is converted to a Flash file (SWF) I believe it retains its vector information and can be scaled essentially to any resolution. If you set the player to "Display at user's current browser size" even with a 720 x 406 design and the user has some mega screen of 3200 x 1800 or something, your text will still look sharp on their screen. That of course would not be the case if you inserted a 720 x 406 image and then tried to view it at 3200 x 1800.


I think text scales because it is text but images are optimised at the original size.

I would expect the DPI to be 96 which is an issue on retina type screens


Phil, of course you are right. The screen is going to be 96dpi no matter what size the presentation was designed at. That will be true for "most" PCs. Retina-types will be different. But in all cases the fonts should scale to the highest level of definition that any particular screen provides.

Jerson  Campos

Are you sure they asked for DPI?  DPI = Dots Per Inch. This is referred to in printing jobs. Are they intending to print the slides in a manual of sorts?  If they are just curious about the resolution of the slides then the term is PPI, or Pixels Per Inch. And just to clarify PPI does not equal DPI.  If you want a good quality printed manual, it is usually printed at 150 DPI.  If there are any images on the manual, they are usually 2X the DPI, or in this case 300 PPI, so they come out sharp and clear. 

I would ask what they intend to do. To view it on an IPAD or print it out.

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