I have clients email me photographs to use in their marketing materials regularly. I find that often, the quality of the files aren't usable for print and I thought that maybe a quick lesson would help!
Photos have to be "hi-res" or high resolution when printed. A high resolution photo really needs to be at least 300 dpi (dots per inch). This is a bit misleading, in that it's not really dots any more, but pixels, but the term is from the old days… Anyway, many pictures that are digitally sent through email and posted on websites and Facebook are much, MUCH lower in resolution than the 300 dpi that works well in print. A resolution of 72 dpi looks fine on a computer screen, or even in a Powerpoint presentation, but will be very blurry when printed. Here is an example:
Photos have to be "hi-res" or high resolution when printed. A high resolution photo really needs to be at least 300 dpi (dots per inch). This is a bit misleading, in that it's not really dots any more, but pixels, but the term is from the old days… Anyway, many pictures that are digitally sent through email and posted on websites and Facebook are much, MUCH lower in resolution than the 300 dpi that works well in print. A resolution of 72 dpi looks fine on a computer screen, or even in a Powerpoint presentation, but will be very blurry when printed. Here is an example:
This is Snickers, my dog, when she was a puppy. Cute, huh? This is a 300 dpi photo.
If I had found this picture on a website, and copied it (LEGALLY) for use in print media, chances are it would have been 72 dpi. So, let's look at how that would look up close:
If I had found this picture on a website, and copied it (LEGALLY) for use in print media, chances are it would have been 72 dpi. So, let's look at how that would look up close:
 Here is a close up of her cute little nose at 300 dpi. Notice the individual hairs and pores on her nose? |  Same nose, at 72 dpi. This blurriness is even more apparent in print materials. |
If your photos are a lower resolution, it is NOT possible to make them higher. They have to be hi-res from the get go. I can enlarge it, but it will just make it a bigger blurry photo. If you have digital photos that you would like to use in your printed materials and you don't know the quality, ask your designer! I would be happy to open the files and check the resolution for you. The end result is definitely worth the extra step.
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