Image Standards

Digital Images

This first rule is a digital images from scanned pictures or from a digital camera should be of an appropriate resolution and clarity for printing. Original images files that are too small (low resolution) may yield a print that appears grainy or pixelated.

What resolution should I use?

We recommend that a scanned images or digital files have the equivalent of 150 to 300 pixels for every inch to be printed. This is called "Pixels Per Inch" (PPI) or "Dots Per Inch" (DPI). The most common that many image programs will automaticaly use is 72 ppi, which is acceptable but will not have the same high-clarity that a 200 ppi image would have. Over 300 ppi is not necessary since the naked eye cannot distinguish any difference at this point. Images beyond 300 ppi also make them unnecessarily large. If you are scanning a photo, you may need to consult your scanner software documentation to set your resolution. Fortunately because large prints are meant to be viewed from several feet way, a small amount of pixelation and graininess can be okay. Take a look at the below example to see how 72 ppi compares to 200 ppi.

The first image was originally at 72 ppi but then resized to 200 ppi at 24 x 16 inches. The second image was originally at 200 ppi at 24 x 16 inches. As you can see, the 72 ppi image will yield a decent print but may appear a little pixelated or grainy at very close range. This may be fine for you or an artist that plans on painting over it, however the 200 ppi image will yield a print with much higher clarity. Canvas prints are also much more forgiving media type so some of the pixelation and graininess may get hidden by the texture. A ouple things to remember is that you can resize a low resolution image but that will not automatically increase the clarity. Don't forget ppi (or dpi) is "relative" to the size you want printed.

We do not recommend images from web cams or image files posted on a web site since they may be too small for printing anything larger than a few inches. You can still submit the image for an order (with the owner's permission, of course) but the end result may be a higher level of pixelation or graininess.

What if I increase the image resolution to 200 or even 300 pixels per inch?

We are asked this a lot. You can do this but the final results will be dependent upon the software you use. Most image editing programs will offer you the ability to resample (resize) your image. This is usually found under the image size option of your program. When you do this you want to make sure that you have "bicubic" resampling selected. If you are using a program like Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro, etc., you want to resample in increments of 110%. Keep doing this until you get close to the size you plan on ordering as a print. Be aware that the more you resize your image, the more your program has to add pixels to fill in the gaps. The more pixels it has to create, the less clarity.

What if my image is not the same size ratio as what I want to order?

We recommend you crop any excess parts of the image with your favorite image editing program if necessary so that you do not loose parts of the picture you want to keep. If your image dimensions are not sized precisely to match your order we will automatically center and crop it to match the dimensions of your order.

Crop-to-fit: The image above illustrates an example of a photo that is the equivalent of an 16 x 24 but the customer wants to order a 16 x 20. The shaded area represents the area our system would crop (trim) from the image file to match the dimensions requested.

Will my print look exactly like it looks on my monitor?

If you have formatted your image dimensions to the same size of your order, then essentially yes. A little color shifting is not unusual. Color shifting is where you may see some difference in color temerature, hues or even brightness in the print compared to what you see on your monitor. Usually this attributed to monitor, video card, or color profile settings (see below).

A note to more advanced users: Most digital picture software uses sRGB by default but some may allow people to set the color profile as something different like AdobeRGB or even something in CMYK. AdobeRGB has become very popular with photographers but because the majority of pictures sent to us are in sRGB we have had to switch from emulating AdobeRGB to emulating sRGB in printing. If you normally work in something other than sRGB, we recommend you convert to sRGB and adjust any saturation level if needed before uploading your image.

How come my scanned photos, negatives or slides are not as sharp as the original?

Some softening of the image is going to occur anyway with enlargements. If your scanned picture looks too soft as a high resolution scan then it is possible that the size to which you are enlarging is too much. An extreme example of this would be to scan a wallet sized photo to the size necessary for a 24 x 30 inch print. The reason is due to an enlarging of the actual grains that make up the photo. Overall, the results of the scan will vary based upon things such as film type, original photo's paper stock and clarity of the original. This is one reason why some photographers that shoot mid to large size prints for their customers have gone from film to digital.

When it comes to print, any softening of the image due to enlarging will be more noticable on the paper media types we use. The canvas is more forgiving because of the texture. Images with a little bit of softening and printed onto canvas can still come out looking really nice. If you are still unsure how to determine image resolution, contact us.

Photographs

Photographs should be of good quality without smudging, watermarks or scratches. If you send us a photo to scan we will make a print of it based upon the size you tell us when you order. But be aware that resized photos do not usually do well if enlarging more than twice their size. For this reason wallet sizes pictures are not recommended. The reason we will still make your print regardless of what you send is because many customers are artists that simply use the print as an underpainting and are not concerned with its clarity or quality.