Digital Photo Frame Mysteries, Picture Size and Picture Format Explained

Innovation is not necessarily the time saver and the great simplifier people try to make it out to be.

Take for example the picture frame and the gradual conversion to the digital frame, and the added complications it has added to our lives.

Like digital cameras, the digital frame has cut down the cost of photography (remember how much money you used to drop on the cost of buying and processing films every month). However, the digital picture frame hasn't helped people whose basic grasp of photography is limited to not much more than 'the big button is the one that makes the picture'.

And let's face it, that group includes you, me and much of the human race. This doesn't make life easy for anyone selling wholesale digital photo frames.

The size doesn't seem to be a factor in how confused we can get when it comes to digital screens and getting the images that are right for them. Someone with a 7 digital photo frame can be just as confused as someone with a 8 inch digital photo frame and heaven help the poor person with the 10 digital frame.

And as gadgets gradually converge into one and people can do more and more with one thing things are going to get more complex too with people having to grapple with photo frames that are also a digital TV receiver, might work as a digital video frame or could even play music.

So before we get into the wiz-bang wizardry that has turned cell phones and media players into incomprehensible devices let's have a look at a couple of questions:

• Do you need to re-size the pictures?


• What formats do pictures need to be in?


• What should I do to photos look good on digital picture frames?


• How can I transfer old pictures to digital frames?

Do you need to re-size the pictures?

This question can be especially tricky for people trying to source wholesale digital photo frames. The answer to this question very much depends on what type of digital photo frame you've got. Home digital frames and larger-sized electronic picture frames won't be a problem, regardless of whether they're 7 digital photo frame or 10 digital picture frame. However, keychain digital picture frames tend to be a little more difficult and you may need to resize these.

What formats do pictures need to be in?

Depending on what digital picture frame you buy and the digital picture frame you have the format could be quite different.

Regardless of whether it's a 7 inch digital frame, or any kind of digital frame most of the common picture formats should work on it. These are usually JPEG, as well as the occasional digital picture frame that plays Tiff and BMP as well.

While JPEG is the most common digital photo format a digital photo frame will show there's no need to get concerned as this is the digital format used by most digital cameras and image devices.

If you're trying to get wholesale digital photo frames then you might want to make sure it at least displays the JPEG format, as it is the one that most people are most likely to be operating in.

However, where some people run into trouble is when they use their cell phone or their MP4 to take a photo in an unusual format and then put it onto their LCD digital frame.

Thankfully there are several sources of open source converters that are free to download and will get most formats working. These include sites like CNet and Sourceforge. So it's even possible to get a digital photo from your unlocked cell phone onto your LCD digital frame.

What should I do to photos look good on digital picture frames?

Again this question depends very much on the digital photo frame that you're using on how to make your digital photo look good. And it's always good to take a closer look at the digital photo frames digital or paper instructions and manufacturer tips.

However, as a general rule the best way to get the best effects out of your digital picture frame is to make sure the picture is close to the same size, if not bigger than the frame you are trying to put it on and to make sure you have a decent resolution on the photographs.

So what does all of that mean when it's at home, why does it help if the picture is bigger and picture resolution... whaah?

I think, even people trying to find wholesale digital photo frames would be going huh...

It wouldn't come as a surprise to many people that you get a better result of making something bigger smaller than you do of making something smaller bigger... with the possible exceptions of bureaucracy and the most common form of plastic surgery of course.

So as a result if you try to take a picture from a keychain digital photo frame, one that might be sized 128 pixels by 128 pixels, and throw it on a 7 digital picture frame then there's a good chance that that on the 7 digital photo frame that digital photo might look, at best like a Georges Seurat work. Or, at worse, a 'find the hidden picture' image or color blindness test.

Same goes for pictures being shifted from a 7 digital picture frame to a 10 or 15 inch digital picture frame, but with less severe results.

The second important consideration to factor in when trying to get the best results for your images on a LCD frame is the frames digital resolution compared to that of the image you're getting the picture off.

If the image is from a website, it's a cell phone creation or some digital creation that looked fantastic on the computer screen then get ready for a shock when you throw it on some high res digital frames. While a large number of digital photo picture frames still work on the 72 pixels per inch resolution more and more work are working on the 300 pixels per inch resolution.

What is more when it comes time to print them out to give to Cleatus your computer illiterate cousin "It's not gonna look all cloudy and muddy like". This is likely to apply more to larger frames than digital frames that are smaller. A 7 inch digital frame shouldn't give you too many problems for example.

But it still is a worthy question for people sourcing wholesale digital photo frames as it will help you give your customers a better experience and stop customer complaints and questions before they happen.

How can I transfer old pictures to digital frames?

This question is turning up more and more online as people start to realize the benefit of having a LCD frame that can show off 50 or so photos at once as opposed to a wooden photo frame that will only show one, and which may cost a considerable amount to fill.

Thankfully it's fairly easy to get older photos from their non digital frames into digital formats that can be loaded onto your computer or onto a 7 digital photo frame.

The first thing to be done is to convert your picture from the physical to digital. This is done with a scanner.

These are fairly common and quite cheap. If you've got a computer then it can be a useful tool but even if you've decided to go without then photo shops and computer shops will have one that they'll let you use for a nominal fee (usually just a couple of bucks or a handful of corn or, in some circumstances, a fluttering of the eye and a raising of the lips).

Once the pictures are digitalized they can be put onto a TF card or USB and transmitted to the digital photo picture frames directly or put onto a CD and transferred from the computer via a USB cable.

The normal rules apply when it comes time to save these images, make sure they're the right dimensions, file type (JPEG nine times out of 10 but check you photo frame) and resolution.

So, it appears that putting images onto digital frames isn't as hard as you'd normally expect and even shifting a physical picture from a photo frame to LCD digital frame isn't as hard as you'd think it would be.