Album Art: What size?

[JeffH]

For those of you that spend time searching and downloading quality album art for your digital collection, what size do you prefer and why?

[Stereoid]

For me not only the size but the DPI is also important. 200 dpi or better is what i like because if something happen with the originals i can print myself another one.

[Jsmith]

I don't have a specific size. It is more where I can find it readily. Usually go to Amazon if the server does not automatically get it, and that is plenty large enough.

[mwheelerk]

I voted 600 x 600 because the vast majority of my library has that size but I recently switched to 1000 x 1000 because I began displaying on a 64 inch screen thinking that might be better but my 600 x 600 look fine. I compare choices of covers carefully and although many times a higher resolution is a better choice you have to be careful because a poor scan looks bad at any size and resolution.

[Brian A]

I use 750x750, which appears to be the maximum size for dBpoweramp.

 

I search for the cover art first on AlbumArtExchange.com, then on Google Images then Amazon.com. For the really obscure stuff, I photograph the cover and adjust in Photoshop (actually, I usually use Digital Light & Color's Picture Window software).

 

If the image i find needs resizing, I do it outside of dBpoweramp. My thinking is that dedicated image processing software is more accurate at resizing than audio ripping software.

[Audio_ELF]

I voted "don't care" which isn't entirely accurate ... but what I will say is that having accurate cover art is more important than the size - ideally 600x600 or larger.

 

Eloise

[Guidof]

It's not the size that counts . . .

 

Guido F.

[souptin]

600sq for me. Pixel size isn't a guarantee of quality, as already mentioned. Also huge sizes can be a pain if you use remote on your iPad. Quality is improving, but there sure are a lot of bad scans/files out there, even with iTunes, where you'd assume the have access to proper artwork.

[spacey]

600x600 to 800x800. I use a 10" tablet as my main interface, anything higher is unnecessary.

[wgscott]

I want it big enough so it doesn't look pixely on a screen, but at 72dpi, that means it doesn't have to be very big. Beyond that, I don't care.

[mwheelerk]

If you are viewing artwork on a laptop in thumbnails size is probably not important but if you are viewing full screen on an HDTV or even on a tablet it does matter unless you enjoy pixelated and blotchy images. iTunes has improved the quality of their artwork pretty dramatically in my opinion to the point that it is my third source behind Album Art Exchange and Google Images. I would say that 90% of their images are 600 x 600 and decent quality. I have also just noticed that the display of artwork in iTunes 11 seems more revealing that previous "full sized" images in Cover Flow.