A digital photo frame is a picture frame

Picture frame

A picture frame is a decorative edging for a picture, such as a painting or photograph, intended to enhance it, make it easier to display, or protect it.-Construction:...

 that displays digital photos without the need to print them or use a computer.

Features

Digital photo frames' common sizes range from 7 inch (17.8 cm) to 20 inch (50.8 cm), keychain-sized. Some digital photo frames can only display JPEG

JPEG

In computing, JPEG . The degree of compression can be adjusted, allowing a selectable tradeoff between storage size and image quality. JPEG typically achieves 10:1 compression with little perceptible loss in image quality....

 pictures. Most digital photo frames display the photos as a slideshow

Slideshow

A slide show is a display of a series of chosen information or pictures, done for artistic or instructional purposes. Slide shows are conducted by a presenter using an apparatus, such as a carousel slide projector, an overhead projector or in more recent years, a computer running presentation...

 and usually with an adjustable time interval. They may also be able to send photos to a printer

Computer printer

In computing, a printer is a peripheral which produces a text or graphics of documents stored in electronic form, usually on physical print media such as paper or transparencies. Many printers are primarily used as local peripherals, and are attached by a printer cable or, in most new printers, a...

.

Digital photo frames typically display the pictures directly from a camera's memory card

Memory card

A memory card or flash card is an electronic flash memory data storage device used for storing digital information. They are commonly used in many electronic devices, including digital cameras, mobile phones, laptop computers, MP3 players, and video game consoles...

, though certain frames also provide internal memory storage. Some allow users to upload pictures to the frame's memory via a USB connection, or wirelessly via Bluetooth

Bluetooth

Bluetooth is a proprietary open wireless technology standard for exchanging data over short distances from fixed and mobile devices, creating personal area networks with high levels of security...

 technology. Some frames allow photos to be shared from a frame to another.

Certain frames can load pictures over the Internet

Internet

The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...

 from RSS

RSS

-Mathematics:* Root-sum-square, the square root of the sum of the squares of the elements of a data set* Residual sum of squares in statistics-Technology:* RSS , "Really Simple Syndication" or "Rich Site Summary", a family of web feed formats...

 feeds, photo sharing

Photo sharing

Photo sharing is the publishing or transfer of a user's digital photos online, thus enabling the user to share them with others . This function is provided through both websites and applications that facilitate the upload and display of images...

 sites such as Flickr

Flickr

Flickr is an image hosting and video hosting website, web services suite, and online community that was created by Ludicorp in 2004 and acquired by Yahoo! in 2005. In addition to being a popular website for users to share and embed personal photographs, the service is widely used by bloggers to...

, Picasa

Picasa

Picasa is an image organizer and image viewer for organizing and editing digital photos, plus an integrated photo-sharing website, originally created by Idealab in 2002 and owned by Google since 2004. "Picasa" is a blend of the name of Spanish painter Pablo Picasso, the phrase mi casa for "my...

 and from e-mail

E-mail

Electronic mail, commonly known as email or e-mail, is a method of exchanging digital messages from an author to one or more recipients. Modern email operates across the Internet or other computer networks. Some early email systems required that the author and the recipient both be online at the...

. Such networked models usually support wireless (802.11

IEEE 802.11

IEEE 802.11 is a set of standards for implementing wireless local area network computer communication in the 2.4, 3.6 and 5 GHz frequency bands. They are created and maintained by the IEEE LAN/MAN Standards Committee . The base version of the standard IEEE 802.11-2007 has had subsequent...

) connections. Moreover, some digital frames now use cellular technology to transfer and share files easily and faster.

Most 7 inch (17.8 cm) models show images at 430 x 234 or 480 x 234 pixels. With some models the width of each landscape image is stretched to achieve an aspect ratio of 16:9, which results in noticeable distortion. Built-in speakers are common for playing video content with sound, and many frames also feature remote controls.

Limitations

Because a digital photo frame's display ratio doesn't always match the original picture ratio, some pictures cannot be displayed in a satisfactory manner. For example they may be rendered too small, with black borders, or they may be automatically zoomed-in and randomly cropped. This issue can be resolved by using photo editing software to crop the pictures before transferring them to the digital frame.

Security issues

In February 2008, a number of digital photo frames, such as the Insignia brand digital frames manufactured in China, were found to be carrying a Trojan horse

Trojan horse (computing)

A Trojan horse, or Trojan, is software that appears to perform a desirable function for the user prior to run or install, but steals information or harms the system. The term is derived from the Trojan Horse story in Greek mythology.-Malware:A destructive program that masquerades as a benign...

 dubbed Mocmex

Mocmex

Mocmex is a trojan, which was found in a digital photo frame in February 2008. It was the first serious computer virus on a digital photo frame. The virus was traced back to a group in China.- Overview :...

on their internal data storage..