What is the ideal size to display a photo on the new iPad?

coreysandler said:

2048 pixels wide and 72 dpi? 96 dpi? does this matter?

Click to expand...

I think the "ideal" resolution and dimensions would be to use the native resolution and dimensions, which is around 240 PPI at 2048x1536 I believe. It's actually somewhat close to print resolution.

won't it just scale to fit the screen regardless of dpi, so ultimately isn't it the pixel dimensions alone that are the critical number? i.e. 2048 x 1536?

Correct, only the pixel dimensions matter

Arguably, the iPad3 resolution is so high that 1:1 pixel matching is not necessary, because your eyes cannot distinguish individual pixels on the ipad screen. That is the whole point behind "retina" level resolution.

Keep in mind that your dimensions will be slightly off if you are talking about a web page. Safari is going to use up some of that screen real estate.

For photos themselves, I've experienced that the iPad 2 does a great job of scaling full-resolution 18MP photos to fit in a crisp manor; I can't imagine the new iPad would do anything less except allow an even more exceptional view to begin with.

Although as noted, web-pages are special.. I deal with these some and the original iPad has already been a challenge for clients who don't want to make new iPad / iPhone sites but expect images to magically double or triple normal resolution seamlessly...