Bitshift when resizing image

Question

I found the following code on http://developers.sun.com/techtopics/mobility/reference/techart/design_guidelines/image_resizing.html, and it works great for resizing an image.
In an effort to fully understand what is going on, can someone please explain to me what the bitshift that occurs below do. I understand what happens in a bitshift, but I do not know why the author used a left shift of 16 to establish the ratio for the width and height. Is there something significant about a left shift of 16?
  * This methog resizes an image by resampling its pixels
  * @param src The image to be resized
  * @return The resized image
  private Image resizeImage(Image src) {
      int srcWidth = src.getWidth();
      int srcHeight = src.getHeight();
      Image tmp = Image.createImage(screenWidth, srcHeight);
      Graphics g = tmp.getGraphics();
      int ratio = (srcWidth << 16) / screenWidth;
      int pos = ratio/2;
      //Horizontal Resize       
      for (int x = 0; x < screenWidth; x++) {
          g.setClip(x, 0, 1, srcHeight);
          g.drawImage(src, x - (pos >> 16), 0, Graphics.LEFT | Graphics.TOP);
          pos += ratio;
      Image resizedImage = Image.createImage(screenWidth, screenHeight);
      g = resizedImage.getGraphics();
      ratio = (srcHeight << 16) / screenHeight;
      pos = ratio/2;       
      //Vertical resize
      for (int y = 0; y < screenHeight; y++) {
          g.setClip(0, y, screenWidth, 1);
          g.drawImage(tmp, 0, y - (pos >> 16), Graphics.LEFT | Graphics.TOP);
          pos += ratio;
      return resizedImage;
  }//resize image   

Answer 1

There are so many things this could be, would help if you post a screenshot, and you get a better response on these forums.
Are you using a thin font? 30 pixels is not very much, and you often want to thicken up a font so you get atleast 1 pixel. Try a different aliasing setting?
Do you have any layer effects, you can use layer >> layer Style >> scale effects