About image resolution of shared projects

Image resolution refers to the number of pixels in an image. Resolution can be expressed in terms of the width and height of the image in pixels (for example, 640 by 360 pixels) and as the total number of pixels in the image. The total number of pixels is determined by multiplying the width and height of the image. So, an image that is 640 by 360 pixels has 230,400 total pixels.

Your electronic devices (computer, iPhone, iPod, iPad, and so on) also have screen resolution, which plays a role in how images appear onscreen. For example, if you’re viewing an image with a large resolution on a device whose screen has a smaller resolution, you have to scroll to see the entire image. If the image you’re viewing has a smaller resolution than your screen, you’ll see the entire image without scrolling, and there will be space around the image.

When you share or export a project in iMovie, you have the choice to render it in a number of sizes: tiny (in a few cases only), mobile, medium, large, HD 720p, and HD 1080p. The resolution of the exported movie for each of these sizes varies depending on the aspect ratio (standard or widescreen) you chose when you created the project.

Listed below are the resolutions for each size, based on the original aspect ratio of your project.

• Mobile:  480 by 360 pixels for standard aspect ratio or 480 by 272 pixels for widescreen aspect ratio.

• Medium:  640 by 480 pixels for standard aspect ratio or 640 by 360 pixels for widescreen aspect ratio.

• Large:  720 by 540 pixels for standard aspect ratio or 960 by 540 pixels for widescreen aspect ratio.

  This size can be rendered only if the resolution of your original video is at least 960 by 540 pixels (widescreen aspect ratio) or 720 by 540 pixels (standard aspect ratio).

• HD 720p:  1280 by 720 pixels for widescreen aspect ratio.

  This size can be rendered only if the resolution of your original video is at least 960 by 540 pixels and your project is set to widescreen aspect ratio (16:9).

• HD 1080p:  1920 by 1080 pixels for widescreen aspect ratio.

  This size can be rendered only if the resolution of your original video is greater than 1280 by 720 pixels and your project is set to widescreen aspect ratio (16:9).