An image can look perfect on your phone and still print soft or pixelated. Screens are forgiving: they shrink images to fit. Print isn’t, because every inch of paper needs enough pixels to fill it.

The one formula you need

For print, resolution is measured in DPI (dots per inch, often used interchangeably with PPI, pixels per inch). The question is always: how many pixels will each inch of the print get?

Pixels ÷ inches = DPI.

Say your image is 1800 pixels wide and you want to print it 6 inches wide. 1800 ÷ 6 = 300 DPI. Print it 12 inches wide and you get 150 DPI: the same pixels stretched twice as far.

How much is enough?

300 DPI is the standard for things held in the hand and read up close: business cards, flyers, brochures, stickers, photos. Our artwork guidelines recommend at least 300 DPI for this reason.
Large items seen from further away, such as banners and posters, can often use lower resolution, because nobody reads them from 20 cm away. Ask us if you’re unsure for a specific size.

Quick reference at 300 DPI:

Print size	Pixels needed
3.5 × 2 in (business card)	1050 × 600
5.5 × 8.5 in (half-letter flyer)	1650 × 2550
8.5 × 11 in (letter flyer)	2550 × 3300

Making an image bigger doesn’t add detail

Changing “72” to “300” in an image editor, or enlarging a small image, doesn’t create detail that wasn’t captured. The software invents the extra pixels and the result looks soft. The fix is to find a larger original: the full-size photo from the camera, or the original logo file from the designer.

Logos are a special case: get them as vectors (SVG, PDF, AI or EPS) whenever possible, because vectors stay sharp at any size. If all you have is a PNG, our PNG to SVG Converter can trace it into a vector.

Common traps

Images saved from social media or messaging apps are usually compressed and downsized. Ask for the original file.
Screenshots capture your screen’s resolution, not the original’s.
Images copied from websites are sized for screens, and may also be someone else’s copyright.

Check before you order

Our free Print-Ready Checker does the arithmetic for you: choose a print size and it tells you instantly whether the image will print sharp or blurry, and the largest size it can print well. Everything runs on your own device; nothing is uploaded. If you need an image at exact dimensions, the Image Resizer helps, as long as you’re making it smaller, not bigger.

When your files are ready, see our print products.