What does this mean?

Question

1 I used a decompressor to make file smaller.
2 The picture has become smaller.
3 The picture has shrunk.
4 The size of the picture has become smaller.
5 The dimension of the picture has become smaller.

What is the size and dimension of a picture?
If you hear this, would you think the person is talking about the dimension of the picture or the weight from 5mb to 2mb?

Is weight the correct term when referring to pictures [JPEG]

KrisBlueNZ · Accepted Answer

When you're talking about raster images (jpg, gif, png, bmp, tiff, ...) terminology can depend on context.
The FILE SIZE is always the size of the file on disk, e.g. 150 kilobytes, and no, it is not called the WEIGHT.
Other terms are not so clear.

RESOLUTION may refer to
(a.) the number of pixels in the image, horizontally and vertically, e.g. 640x480 (I would call this the "pixel resolution"), OR
(b.) the number of pixels (or "dots") per inch (or pixels per cm, etc) associated with the image, e.g. 72 dpi (I would call this the "DPI").

DIMENSIONS may refer to
(a.) the number of pixels in the image, horizontally and vertically, e.g. 640x480, ("pixel resolution"), OR
(b.) the equivalent size of the image, if printed at its native DPI (see resolution (b.)), e.g. 6x4 inches (I would call this the "printed dimensions").

SIZE may refer to dimensions (a.), dimensions (b.), or file size.

In answer to your questions.
1. You use a COMPRESSOR (not DEcompressor) to make the file smaller. This affects only the file size, so the file takes up less space on disk. The image itself is not affected, i.e. the resolution and dimensions are unchanged.
2. "The picture has become smaller" means, to me, that the "pixel resolution" has been decreased. For example, the picture previously had 640x480 pixels but now it only has 320x240 pixels. If they were referring to the file size, they should mention the word "file" somewhere.
3. "shrunk" to me means the same as 2, but it could also mean that its "printed dimensions" have reduced; this would happen if the DPI was increased.
4. "The size of the picture has become smaller" is the same as 2.
5. "The dimensions of the picture have become smaller", to me, means the same as 3.

Anonymous · Answer

Can you tell me how to ask

How many pixels does the camera have? It has 10 million pixels.
Thank you

KrisBlueNZ · Answer

1. "What is this camera's resolution?"
2. "What is this camera's resolution, in megapixels?"
3. "How many megapixels does this camera have?"
4. "How many megapixels is this camera?"

Questions 3 and 4 are technically inaccurate but their meaning is obvious to anyone who is familiar with digital photography.

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