A Resolution To Keep

No, the resolution I am referring to is not about losing weight, quitting smoking or controlling road rage. I am referring to image resolution for your print projects.

Let’s say you have found or photographed the perfect image and you proudly sent it to your Designer for use on a 22” x 28” poster. The vision of this printed marvel dances in your head as if on parade…big, bold, beautiful and driving people to your store or event in droves, like the Pied Piper.

When your Designer views the file, she sadly discovers that the image is only 72 dpi (dots per inch). Even worse, that incredible, but low resolution image you just sent her, turns out to measure only about 3” by 4”. Way too small for the big, bold, beautiful 22” x 28” poster you requested.

So your Designer is in a pickle. She has a small, low resolution image that you, her customer, want to use in a much larger poster. “Why can’t you just enlarge it?” you ask. Want to guess how much she has to enlarge it to get it to fit the poster? 700%! Now you have an image that is distorted, pixilated, and horrifyingly terribly grainy. Gone is the masterpiece you were dreaming of…

To avoid this disaster from occurring again, remember that images must be no less than 300 dpi and as close to the finished print size as possible. In the case above, knowing that you wanted the image to fill the entire poster, the file would need to be supplied to the Designer with at least 300 dpi and as close in size to 22” x 28”. The quality and clarity of this high resolution image combined with the mad design skills of your Designer, will make the this poster the work of art you desire and attract the customers you need.