Low Res vs. High Res Images For Custom Label Printing

The Difference Between Low and High Res Images

Photographs and graphics can really make your label artwork stand out. In order to make sure your images are printed at the best quality, there are a few things you should know about low and high res images.

Image resolution refers to how many ‘pixels’ that make up an image will fit inside each inch of the printed photo area. More pixels per inch makes the image appear smaller on paper, while fewer pixels makes the image appear larger on paper. However more pixels per inch means more detail is present in your image. Image resolution is really only important when it comes to printing. In fact, most images you find on the internet are only 72 dpi (dots per inch), which is enough detail to render a decent image on the screen, but not nearly enough detail to print a quality image at full size. If you try to print a 72 dpi image at a larger size, the resulting printed image will be blurry and most likely unusable.

low-res-72dpi

This image above represents what a 72 dpi (web image).

high-res-300dpi

This image above represents what a high quality 300 dpi image looks like.

If your images are from a website, more than likely, the resolution will be 72 dpi and without enough detail to print as mentioned above. The exception is if you’ve purchased and downloaded high res images from a stock photography website.