The Importance of Using High Resolution (300 D.P.I.) for printing

When designing digital files intended for commercial offset printing, it is essential that all of the photographs and images in your in files are high resolution. If you have ever seen printed material that contains blurry or blocky images which often provides a bad presentation, it was likely caused by incorporating low resolution images. Ensuring a high quality printed job is as simple as making sure all photos and images in your digital files are all high resolution. The information below covers the specific differences between the two and how to avoid problems.

What is D.P.I. and how it will affect your printed job?

D.P.I. or “Dots per Inch” is the measurement used within the printing and graphics design industry to determine how sharp an image is. Web graphics and online photos are normally created at 72dpi (dots per inch). This low resolution is great for the web because the images look excellent on a computer monitor and the file sizes are very small which helps web pages load faster. However, when designing graphics for commercial printing purposes, your images should be 300dpi or better, here’s why.

Take a look at the example to the right. Essentially, the difference between 300dpi and 72dpi is found in the amount of pixel information (or dots) for every square inch of the image you are viewing. The more dots/pixels the image contains, the sharper the image will print. As a result, printing will look blurry if a 72dpi image is used as compared to using a 300dpi high res image.