Why are my images not printing sharp, and what should I do?

Blurry or soft prints usually come down to two things: low resolution and the wrong color mode. Screen images can look fine on a monitor but fall apart in print if they do not have enough pixels or are still in RGB.

• Use images at a minimum of 300 DPI at the final print size.
• Convert artwork to CMYK, the color space used for print, rather than RGB.
• Do not enlarge small or web-sized images, since scaling up adds no real detail.
• Start from the highest-resolution original you have and avoid re-saving JPEGs repeatedly.

Review your proof before approving the run so you can catch any softness while it is still easy to fix.

A monitor shows only about 72 to 96 pixels per inch, which is why an image can look crisp on screen and still print soft. Check the pixel dimensions instead: divide each one by 300 to find the largest size that prints cleanly.