THE IMPORTANCE OF HIGH RESOLUTION IMAGES FOR PRINT
When working with photos, it is important to know that there is a difference between how they look online versus how they look when they are in print. That is because digital media works differently than print media. This can be confusing, because the world of digital photography has made it so easy to take photos and post them online. A photo can look great on your computer screen, or on your phone’s Facebook feed, yet when it is printed out, that very same photo might look blurry or choppy.
HIGH RESOLUTION IMAGES VS. LOW RESOLUTION IMAGES
The reason for this difference between online photos and printed photos is in the resolution of the image. Resolution describes the amount of detail an image has. The higher the resolution, the more detail. Photos that are intended for online viewing don’t need nearly as high resolution as photos intended for print. In fact, low resolution images are actually preferred for online, since they take up less file space and load more quickly. But, these low resolution images are very difficult for designers trying to make them look good in print. One quick way to know if a photo is going to look pixelated in print is to zoom in on it. If it starts to look blurry or choppy as you zoom in, that’s a good indication that it is a low resolution image: fine for online, but not so good for print.
A LITTLE BIT ABOUT RESOLUTION, PIXELS, & DOTS PER INCH
Also, some basics about resolution might help you decide if your photo is fit to print. There are a couple of terms people use to describe resolution. One of them is “pixel.” Pixels are used to describe how much detail or information an image has. The more pixels, the more detail. When an image doesn’t have a high amount of pixels, it will appear “pixelated,” where the image looks like a bunch of squares joined together. (Kind of like the earliest video games used to look!) With printed images, a common term people use to describe resolution is DPI, or “dots per inch,” referring to the tiny dots on paper that make up an image. A pixel in a digital image is the equivalent of a dot in a printed one. Many online photos are 72 DPI, and they look really good on a computer monitor or a phone screen. However, 72 DPI is considered low resolution for print media, and would look blurry and pixelated when printed.
If you want a photo to look sharp and vivid when printed, a general rule of thumb is that it should be at least 300 DPI. To give you an idea of the size of file a high resolution photo would be, a 3 x 5 inch photo, at 300 DPI, is usually about 1 MB (megabyte), while a full page photo, at 300 DPI, is usually about 3 MB. Sometimes it can be easier to figure out the size of photo you need by measuring your pixels. If you don’t mind a little math, you can convert from pixels to DPI pretty easily, to help you with sizing your photo. For example, if you want a 4 x 6 inch printed photo to have 300 DPI, your photo would need to be 1200 (4 x 300) pixels on its short side, and 1800 pixels (6 x 300) on its long side. So, it needs to be at least 1200 x 1800 pixels in size.
WHEN IN DOUBT, SAVE YOUR IMAGES IN HIGH RESOLUTION
When in doubt, if you know your photo is going to be used for print, save it in the highest resolution format you can. Your graphic designer can always reduce the size of your photo, but it’s very hard to increase the size and the resolution, while maintaining the quality. And while viewing and sharing photos online is quick, fun, and easy, there is nothing like having that same photo in a more permanent format like print, either for an advertisement or for your own personal memories. At Total Local, because our directories are printed, we will need high resolution images and artwork. So please send us your highest resolution logo and photos. We usually cannot pull images from your website or facebook pages and use them in print, because they normally are lower resolution for online media. If you have any questions about whether or not a photo or artwork is high enough resolution, please open it in a photo viewer to look at the dimensions, pixels or DPI. When in doubt, the higher the file size, the higher the resolution. For photos, anything less than one megabyte is usually too low resolution for print. If you have any questions about your files, one of our sales representatives will be happy to assist you.