Why isImageResolution

IMPORTANT?Quality

Good Printed File – sized 300 dpi at 100%

Good Printed File – sized 300 dpi at 100% Bad Printed File – 72 dpi scaled to 300 dpiBad Printed File – sized 72 dpi at 100%

Bad Printed File – sized 72 dpi at 100%

Raster graphics (such as photos) are resolution dependent, and need to be at a correct resolution and size for your �nal product output. Raster images cannot be scaled without quality loss.

Generally, the better the resolution an image has, the more detail captured and the crisper the image will be. Low resolu-tion images have less information and will print jagged and fuzzy.

Image resolution, o�en referred to as PPI (Pixels Per Inch) or DPI (Dots Per Inch), is the number of pixels or dots within a one-inch area. Size and resolution of images are inversely proportional to each other. Scaling images up in a layout program will decrease the output resolution of the image at the same percentage of the scale. Optimal image resolution for printing is 300 dpi. If scaled 120%, a 300 dpi image will lose 20% resolution to output at 240 dpi, which is not preferable for printing. (Note: Monitors display at 72 dpi. Just because an image looks okay on a computer monitor, doesn’t mean it’ll look good in print. Web graphics are usually created at 72dpi, and are not appropriate for printing at that resolution.) All raster images should be created at 300 dpi at 100% of �nal output size.

For an image to print properly, the image must be at least 300 dots per inch (dpi) at 100% of �nal output size.

If a �le is not 300 dpi, simply increasing the dpi in an imaging program is not su�cient – that will result in a blurry image.