You can, in the simplest case, display a single, static image ? just like a traditional picture frame ? or combine your favourite images into a slide show, with clever effects and sound. Digital photo frames are available in a range of sizes, and styles, can be mounted on a wall, or stood on a desk, or bedside table and, as such, are suitable for any home, or office. They are also simple to operate, making them an ideal gift for your, perhaps, less technologically minded loved ones.

Important Features

A digital photo frame is basically an LCD (?Liquid Crystal Display?) screen ? the same technology employed in, for example, some television sets and computer monitors ? plus some other components, but it is the characteristics of the screen that will determine the quality of the image displayed (and, probably, the cost of the frame).

A screen should obviously be large enough to provide comfortable viewing, from a typical vantage point, so, while a 7-inch, or smaller, display might be perfectly adequate for your office desk, or wall, if a digital photo frame is to take pride of place in your spacious living room, you may like to consider something larger. As just one example, the Aigo A216 Digital Photo Frame features an LCD screen of 5.6 inches.

The resolution of the screen, or display ? the number of ?pixels? that it is capable of displaying ? is as important as its physical size. The more pixels, or picture elements, that an image contains, the better overall quality ? so, for example, choose an 800 x 600 pixel model over a 640 x 480 pixel model, and so on, all other things being equal. The Dynamode Digi-FR7 7 inch Digital Photo Frame, for example, has a bright, glare-resistant TFT display, and a resolution of 12 Mp (?megapixels?, or millions of pixels).

Other aspects of the display which you should consider are its viewing angle ? if you want a frame to be seen clearly from as many positions around a room as possible, once again, the higher the better (typically between 130 and 160 degrees) ? and its aspect ratio ? typically 4:3, which means that standard digital camera photographs can be displayed without distortion, or ?cropping?.

Look, too, for digital photo frames that allow you to adjust the brightness, contrast and backlighting levels ? all of these can make a difference to the quality of the image displayed, and help to show off your digital photographs in all sorts of different environments.

Conclusion

A digital photo frame can liberate your precious digital photographs from your digital camera, or computer, and let them emerge into the light, to be displayed in bright, vibrant colour ? like they probably should've been all along. You can store just one, or two, or many photographs in a single frame, and change them as often, or as infrequently, as you like, to suit your mood, environment or audience. So, whether it's your significant other, your boss, or even your mother-in-law, that you need to impress, you can always have the ?ammunition? ready.