What is Your Resolution?
In the graphics’ world, resolution can make or break your day. It’s very important to have images that are high resolution because it determines the quality of your picture. But what is resolution?
Resolution is how much detail one image holds. It’s measured by how many pixels there are per inch (ppi). The higher the ppi the better quality of the image.
For printing, it’s best to have images no less than 300ppi. Otherwise, there is a chance that your images will print pixelated and grainy.
How can you find the resolution of your image?
Most graphic programs will tell you. Open up your image and look for something that says Image Size. Your program will give you the ppi, dpi (dots per inch) or resolution.
If you don’t have a graphics program, you can usually tell if an image is low resolution by looking at it. How crisp are the lines? Do you notice any stair stepping around lettering or shapes? Are the details in the image fuzzy? If you answered yes to these, then your image is definitely low resolution.
How do you fix a low resolution image?
Once a picture’s resolution has been reduced there is no hope of getting back the quality. There are a few things we can do to improve the quality to some degree but it will never look perfect again. The best you can hope for is good enough.
How does an image lose resolution?
Scanning:
Overtime, scanned images begin to wear down. If you’re going to send in a scanned image to be printed, make sure it is from an original document that is still crisp and clean.
JPEGs.
In previous posts it’s been mentioned that JPEGs are a lossy format. When you save a picture over and over, each time it saves, it compresses the graphic to make it smaller. Over time, those compressions wear the quality of the image down. It’s good practice to keep an original version of your file… one that has never been touched or re-saved.
Uploading to the web.
A graphic that has been uploaded to the web often gets compressed to save load time. Most images downloaded from the web are 72ppi.
So what’s your resolution? If you have a graphic you would like printed on any business cards, labels or forms, send it to us when you purchase your custom printed item. We will do our best to work with you to make sure that your images are of the best quality.
Categorised in: Printer's Advice
This post was written by Progressive Printing Team
