Ensuring a high quality poster or photo enlargement all starts with submitting a high quality source image. Photos are made up of tiny pixels (or dots) per inch, and the more pixels your source image has, the more we can enlarge it with high quality. This is commonly referred to as “dpi”.
Our file quality check tool will show you the pixels your source image has in width and height, and give suggestions for a recommended print size based on it’s resolution.
We recommend your source image have between 75 (minimum) to 300 (maximum) dpi at the actual desired print size for a photo quality print.
The chart below shows how the dpi of your source image can be used to print at various quality levels from good to excellent. Start a print within any of these size ranges for each quality level.
The maximum recommended size for your poster based on this image’s resolution is .
Printed this size or smaller, it will look photographic. Printed much larger is not recommended as it will start to appear blurry or pixelated.
Use our image size and aspect ratio tool to check your image’s aspect ratio. You can also calculate what your image will size to in either direction by specifying a starting width or height.
IMPORTANT NOTE: A starting image can have high resolution but still be blurry. Sometimes a customer will try to fool the quality check by “adding resolution” or re-sizing the image using software at home to give it more dpi. This just creates a starting image that has high resolution but is still blurry. A good rule of thumb is to open your starting image at actual size on your computer and study it. If it’s clear at actual size, then it should be clear when we enlarge it. If it’s already blurry at actual size, then your enlarged print is also going to be blurry.
PosterPrintShop is the leading provider of high quality large format posters & prints. We use the highest quality inks and media and also specialize in rush and overnight printing.
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