Preparing your file
A few minutes of preparation gives the best print. If you're unsure, upload what you have: we check every file by hand and will tell you if anything needs changing.
Colour
- Supply RGB files with the colour profile embedded (Adobe RGB 1998, ProPhoto RGB or sRGB). Please don't convert to CMYK: our printers have a wider colour range than CMYK and converting loses colour.
- Files without a profile are treated as sRGB.
- For true black and white prints, tell us in the notes and we'll print with the printer's black and white mode for neutral greys.
- Screens are brighter than paper. If your screen isn't calibrated, a proof print is worth it for important work.
Resolution
We judge quality by pixels, not file size. The effective resolution is your pixels divided by the print size in inches.
| At print size | Result |
|---|---|
| 300 dpi or more | Excellent |
| 200–299 dpi | Good — most viewers won't see a difference |
| 150–199 dpi | Lower — may look soft up close. You can accept it, or ask us to retouch and upscale |
| Under 150 dpi | Too small for that size — we'll show the largest size that works |
Example: a 20 × 24 inch print at 300 dpi needs 6000 × 7200 pixels (about 124 MB open, around 21 MB as a high-quality JPEG). At 200 dpi it needs 4000 × 4800 pixels.
File types
JPEG (highest quality), TIFF, PNG, or flattened PSD/PSB, up to 150 MB. Please flatten layers and remove alpha channels.
Shape and cropping
If your image is a different shape to the print size, we'll show you the difference. Choose crop to fill (edges are trimmed evenly) or fit (the whole image with extra white space). You can also lock the size to your image's shape.
Borders
A white border makes framing and handling easier and leaves room for a signature. The border is added outside your chosen image size.