Understanding the dimension specifications and resolutions of internet products is the first step of online interface design. But there are many models on the market; what then?
As a designer, you need to master the common sizes and distances, and understand and design for adaptation, to solve the layout rules and conversion relationships between different phone screens.
The design dimensions of common mobile phone screens are the designer’s basic toolkit.
Definitions of DPI and PPI
DPI was originally a printing measure, meaning the number of dots printable per inch. But as digital input and output devices developed rapidly, most people also use DPI for the resolution of digital images. More rigorous observers note that the dots counted in printing and the pixels displayed on a computer monitor are not the same thing, so professionals use PPI, pixels per inch, to express digital image resolution and distinguish the two.
When we say a printer’s resolution is so many DPI, we mean the maximum number of theoretical ink dots per inch under the printer’s highest-resolution mode.
Pixels per inch, also called pixel density, is the number of pixels per inch. The higher the PPI, the denser the display can render images, and the higher the density, the higher the fidelity. PPI is the unit of pixel density: the higher the value, the richer the detail. Photos from digital cameras differ by brand and production date, commonly 72 PPI, 180 PPI and 300 PPI by default.
DPI, dots per inch, is output resolution, applying to output devices: ordinary laser printers output 300 to 600 PPI, imagesetters for printing reach 1200 to 2400 PPI, and common photo printing sits between 150 and 300 PPI.
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