Icon Resolution: Pixels vs. DPI
When I try to do some research on creating Windows icons and size / resolution images that I have to leave in my .ico files before saving, there is too much weird information in there.
Some say that 16x16, 24x24, 32x32, 48x48 ... etc. at 96 DPI.
This is what annoys me and I feel like it doesn't make any sense.
Not 1 pixel = 1 pixel?
Why do they insist on mixing DPI with this?
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What is always true is this 1 pixel = 1 pixel
. What is the change is how large this pixel is one of the different displays that have different screen densities. This is what DPI describes - the number of dots (pixels) per inch. But using DPI in the context of image size only makes sense when you use it in conjunction with inches (centimeters). For example, "create the image 10x10
in inches at 300 DPI" and from that statement you can calculate that the image should be 3000x3000
pixels in size.
As far as Windows is concerned, what the counter is is the font scaling setting, which can be set from 100% to 200%
So when you design your icons, make sure you have at least 1x and 2x sizes. If the icon should be 16x16
pix at normal resolution, this means that you will also create a 32x32
pix icon . Another commonly used scaling is 125% and 150%, so it would be nice to provide an icon for those sizes as well.
You are free to ignore statements such as "Make the icon x pixels wide and x pixels high at x DPI" because these people have no idea what they are talking about.
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THANKS for people saying the "HIGH X WIDE X DPI" badges were idiots. I couldn't figure out how they mix ALL THREE concepts in a 2D file. What we found as a description looks like this: if you want the SIZE of a 16x16 icon to look the same on a 96 DPI and 192 DPI screen, you must create a 16X16 and 32X32 icon. Hopefully windows will know to capture 32X32 on a higher resolution screen compared to 16x16. It also makes sense to provide 32X32 icons with more information, so at higher resolutions it's not just a scaled 16x16. Anyway, thanks to Dahlia for your clarity. Jeff White
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