Image Formats and Sizes

Full-size originals

Images on Touch The Skies are available as high-quality JPEGS. The image colour space can be either Adobe RGB 1998 or sRGB depending on the image, with most being Adobe RGB 1998. We normally supply images in their original colour space, but if you require an image for web publication we will provide it as sRGB since this format displays better on most internet browsers.

The pixel dimensions of each full-size image on our server is indicated in the image display window. This is the size of the digital file as it came out of the camera, with edge cropping as necessary but without resizing. We do not try to pass off digitally interpolated images as images shot at higher than actual resolution.

Images on Touch The Skies are at least 2700 pixels on their longest side, with most being well above 3000 pixels. Any landscape-format image on our site is large enough to be printed across an A4/Letter page at the industry-standard print resolution of 300 pixels per inch.

Our photos are good enough to be reproduced at lower print resolutions, but we do not cut corners and we save them at 300 pixels per inch. If this does not translate into the print size that you need for a particular image, let us know and we will digitally enlarge the image for you. To produce the best possible enlargements we use professional-standard Genuine Fractals interpolation software.

Medium-size display images

For every image uploaded to the site, Touch The Skies generates a display copy which is resized to 800 pixels and lightly watermarked. Regardless of the original's colour space, the display copy is in sRGB for more accurate on-screen colour rendition. (Conversely, if we send you a full-size Adobe RGB original it may look dull on your screen. Full-size originals should be viewed using image editing software which incorporates colour profile management to ensure that colours are rendered well on screen.)

The 800-pixel display image is also sharpened moderately and compressed. Images look softer on screen than they do as high-quality prints, so we sharpen the display image to make it a better representation of how the original would look in print at the same size.

Compression is used to speed up download times for faster browsing. Depending on your browser and monitor the effects of compression can be visible on screen, particularly in areas of sky where smooth colour variations can turn into solid blocks or bands. This only affects the display image and is not a feature of the original.