You’ve all seen it. And you’ve all wondered. Wondered, “What the heck? Where does ’72 pixels/inch’ come from? And what does it mean?”
Either you’ve gone to Edit->Image Size or Edit->Preferences->Units & Rulers… and seen the rather cryptic ’72 pixels/inch’ setting for “Document Size:Resolution” or “New Document Preset Resolution:Screen Resolution,” respectively. You see it when you create a new document in the “New” dialog and select a non-print Preset. There it sits, in all of its uninformative glory, “Resolution: 72 pixels/inch,” taunting you with the option to change its value, if you dare. What would happen? Who would know? Will the PS police come storming out of the Advanced options drop-down, brandishing ’72 pixels/inch’ virtual truncheons to mercilessly beat your mouse pointer about the acute angles until you meekly reset it to its seemingly universally mandated default of ’72?’
Several months ago I put together a quick Photoshop tutorial for IC Photo Video. I re-post it here just because I can. Comments welcome.
Welcome.