Magnification Totally Explained

Magnification is the process of enlarging something only in appearance, not in physical size. Magnification is also a number describing by which factor an object was magnified. When this number is less than one it refers to a reduction in size, sometimes called minification.
Typically magnification is related to scaling up visuals or images to be able to see more detail, increasing resolution, using optics, printing techniques, or digital processing. In all cases, the magnification of the image doesn't change the perspective of the image.

Magnification as a number (optical magnification)

Optical magnification is the ratio between the apparent size of an object (or its size in an image) and its true size, and thus it's a dimensionless number.

Linear or transverse magnification — For real images, such as images projected on a screen, size means a linear dimension (measured, for example, in millimeters or inches).

Angular magnification — For optical instruments with an eyepiece, the linear dimension of the image seen in the eyepiece (virtual image in infinite distance) can't be given, thus size means the angle subtended by the object at the focal point (angular size). Strictly speaking, one should take the tangent of that angle (in practice, this makes a difference only if the angle is larger than a few degrees). Thus, angular magnification is defined as ť :

mathrm

Other uses

One can also magnify sounds (see amplification).

Magnification can also be used as a generalized term for increasing the detail or vividness of something: ideas, emotions, etc.

A magnification factor is sometimes misused on the internet to describe the scale of an image for example from a microscope. Magnification isn't the correct term here because the size of the displayed image can't be controlled. A better practice is to include a scale bar or other object of known size in the image. In certain art-pictures, such as Nikon Small World Gallery

, scale bars are undesirable for aesthetic reasons - in such cases, a caption is often used stating the size of some apparent feature or stating the field size of the original image.

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