top of page
RESOLUTION GUIDE
Image resolution simply means how much detail an image contains.
Images are made up of lots of tiny coloured squares called pixels. The more pixels an image has, the clearer and sharper it will look when printed.
If an image is too small or low quality and is enlarged, those pixels become more noticeable. This can make the image look blurry, fuzzy or pixelated when printed.
WHY DOES MY IMAGE LOOK FINE ON SCREEN?
An image can look perfectly clear on your phone or computer but still be too low quality for professional printing. Screens generally require much less image detail than print. This means a logo or photo may look great on screen but appear blurry or pixelated once it is printed.
WHAT RESOLUTION DO I NEED?
For the best results, we recommend supplying images at 300 DPI at the size they will be printed.
For example, an image may be good enough to print clearly at 5cm wide, but if you enlarge that same image to 20cm wide, it may become pixelated. The larger you want an image to be printed, the higher quality the original image needs to be.
HOW CAN I CHECK MY IMAGE?
A simple way to get an idea of the quality is to zoom in closely on your artwork.
If your image or logo starts to look blurry, fuzzy or you can clearly see individual square pixels, it may not be high enough quality for printing.
Please remember that this is only a rough guide. Our team can check your artwork before printing and let you know if we spot any resolution issues.
AN EASY WAY TO REMEMBER
High-resolution image = sharper, clearer print
Low-resolution image = may look blurry or pixelated
EXAMPLE
Here are three examples of our Motion logo, each is at a different resolution. At 100% zoom all the logos should look clear, however you can see the differences.
Logo 1 Logo 2 Logo 3
• Logo 1 is very distorted once enlarged and if printed this would be very obvious.
• Logo 2 does not distort at 400% and would print well, however if made any larger would also distort.
• Logo 3 is a vectored logo, meaning it is made up from a mathematical formula as opposed to dots. Because of this it will never distort regardless of zoom. Tip - If a picture displays clearly on a screen at 4 times the intended printed size it should print clearly.
WHAT'S THE SOLUTION?
1. Replace - The best solution is to replace the offending logo/picture with one that is a higher resolution or vectored. If your looking for better resolution files places to check are any old proofs from printers and electronic versions of corporate documents that have been professionally produced. Logos should usually be in an .ai illustrator file or .eps format.
2. Resize - You can sometimes get away by making a picture or logo smaller which can reduce pixilation. Use the four times rule of thumb to check however this isn’t ideal.
3. Rebuild - This is by far the most complex and expensive option, pictures unfortunately cannot normally be rebuild. With logos it is possible to redraw, however it requires some chargeable design time. If this is your only option we will be happy to provide a quote.
4. Risk it / Regret it - We can print your artwork as it is however we will need your signed consent to go ahead with sending this to print. Obviously we would not recommend this.
bottom of page