Almost every time I receive a picture from a client, they ask, “Is this image big enough?” If it isn’t, the jargon begins to fly: resolution (or “res”), pixels, pixelated, screen resolution, print resolution, DPI, PPI … whew! Clients are often confused because the image looks fine on their computer and they can’t understand why it won’t look great when it is printed for the final piece.

Let me try to explain some of the technical jargon, as simply as possible, as it is related to the field of graphic design.

Resolution

Image resolution describes the amount of detail an image holds. Higher resolution images are crisper and more detailed. In a lower resolution image, the fine differences in color disappear, edges become blurred, etc. There are many kinds of resolution that can apply to film, television, etc., but the two types we are concerned with here are print resolution and screen resolution.

Screen Resolution

In general, resolution is measured in ___ per ___, with those blanks depending on the medium. Screen resolution is measured in pixels per inch (PPI). There’s another piece of jargon – a pixel is a tiny square of color. A monitor uses tiny pixels to assemble text and images on screen.

The optimal resolution for images on screen is 72 DPI. Increasing the DPI won’t make the image look any better, it’ll just make the file larger, which will probably slow down the website when it loads or the file when it opens.

Print Resolution

Print resolution is measured in dots per inch (or “DPI”), which means the number of dots of ink per square inch that a printer deposits on a piece of paper. So, 300 DPI means that a printer will output 300 tiny dots of ink to fill every square inch of the print. 300 DPI is the standard print resolution for high resolution output.

How the two work together

Documents begin on screen and either stay on screen, or they are printed. If the document will stay on the screen (like a website), you just need to worry about screen resolution, so your images should be 72 PPI.

An important note: Sometimes the terms DPI (print) and PPI (screen) are used interchangeably. So, don’t be confused if someone refers to a 300 DPI image that is on screen, because pixels per inch (PPI) translate equally to dots per inch (DPI).

If you’re going to print the document, you need to make sure the images are 300 DPI at 100% of the final output size. This sounds more complicated than it really is.

We already know that 300 DPI images have 300 dots per square inch. So, if we have an image that is 300 pixels by 300 pixels — we can print it at 1″ × 1″ at 300 DPI. If this is the final output size, we are good to go. If the image was intended to be printed as a 2″ × 2″ image, we would be in trouble, because it would output at only 150 DPI. If this was intended to be a 5″ × 5″ image, we are in trouble, because the image would output at only 60 DPI.

The bigger we try to print the 300px × 300px image (note: px is the abbreviation for pixel), the more pixellated it becomes. Pixellated is a term used to indicate the degradation of the image – the eye can start to see the individual pixels, and the edges become very jagged.

Here is how a 300px × 300 px image, printed at 1″ × 1″ at 300 DPI:

Here is how the same 300px × 300 px image, printed at 2″ × 2″ at 150 DPI would look (I had to crop in on it for the purposes of the post, but you can start to see the pixellation:

Here is how the same 300px × 300 px image, printed at 5″ × 5″ at 60 DPI would look (I had to crop in on it for the purposes of the post, but you can  really start to see the pixellation:

As I hope you can see, the original image size doesn’t matter as much as what the DPI will be when the image is printed out at 100%. The image is perfectly fine at 1 inch by 1 inch, but it looks terrible at 5 inches by 5 inches because the DPI is only 60.

How can I figure out the DPI of an image?

Math. And unfortunately, it has little do with the overall file size of an image (like whether the image is 1MB or 10MB).  In general, a bigger file size is better to give your designer, but there’s a more exact method to it. We need to find the overall dimensions of the image, and then do some math.

On a Mac

• Right-click (or control-click) on an image.
• Select “Get Info.”
• Under the “More info” tab, look for Dimensions.

You should see a number like “1024 x 768″ (some number x some number). These numbers show the number of pixels in the image (width x height)

On a PC

• Right-click on image icon.
• Select “Properties.”
• Click the “Summary” tab in the properties window.

You’ll see values for the Width, Height, Horizontal Resolution and Vertical Resolution.
(You can see screen shots here). Ignore the Horizontal and Vertical Resolution values. Just pay attention to the overall Width and Height

So, if you want to print an image that is 1024 × 768 (listed as Width=1024px, Height=768px on a PC), you need to divide each value by 300 to see how many inches you can print at 300 dpi.

1024 ÷ 300 = 3.4133″ (width)

768 ÷ 300 = 2.56″ (height)

So, you could print this 1024px × 768px image at 300 DPI at a size of 3.4133″ × 2.56″ – any bigger than this, and you risk the image becoming pixellated. Sure, you can enlarge the image a teeny, tiny bit beyond this size, if you need to, but it’s best if you don’t.

That’s it!

Designers, did I forget anything? Non-designers, does this make sense to you? Is there anything that is still confusing you?

Lately, I’ve been having a series of mini-epiphanies. I think I’ve finally heard the same sage advice enough times from enough people for it to really sink in. Or perhaps I needed to experience it from the client/customer perspective to really “get it.”

Look the part.

Over the weekend, I treated my mom and myself to a spa day, courtesy of a Groupon I purchased awhile back. We spent over three hours getting a manicure/pedicure, a one-hour massage and a mini facial. The services were fantastic – but the staff were sloppily dressed and there was an avalanche of dirty towels piled in the massage room. The glass was smudged with dirty fingerprints. There were scuff marks on the wall. These details made me question whether I would return and pay full price for the services. The salon just didn’t “feel” high end.

I was reminded that it is more than just the quality of work that matters to your clients/customers. Read the rest of this entry »

Ideally, when a graphic designer begins working on a project (in any medium) all of the content will be ready. In reality, this is rarely the case.

Typical scenario [on a Monday afternoon]:
I need this PDF info sheet finished by Friday morning. The text? No, it’s not ready yet. The Marketing Department is writing it now. They’ll have it for you on Wednesday afternoon.

If the designer is lucky, he/she will at least get some of the images or a quick synopsis about what the content will be. In order to start designing a piece that is largely comprised of copy, the designer will need to use some filler text in order to get the design completed and approved by the deadline.

Lorem ipsum to the rescue.

What is Lorem Ipsum?

Lorem ipsum is standard dummy text that has been used as filler in the printing and typesetting industry ever since the 1960s, as possibly as early as the sixteenth century.

The first sentence of Lorem Ipsum commonly reads as follows:

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.

The text is a slightly scrambled derivation from sections 1.10.32-33 of Cicero’s De finibus bonorum et malorum ([About] The Purposes of Good and Evil). The original passage began: Neque porro quisquam est qui dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci velit (Translation: “Neither is there anyone who loves grief itself since it is grief and thus wants to obtain it“) You can read more of the translation here.

Richard McClintock, a Latin scholar, discovered the origin of the passage after searching for for citings of the rarely used Latin word “consecteur” in classical literature.

How it is used today

Lorem ipsum text is preferred over something like “Content here. Content here.” because it has a relatively “normal” distribution of letters, which makes it look like readable English. There are many random generators of Lorem Ipsum, including a Dashboard widget for Mac and lipsum.com.

Why Lorem Ipsum contributes to bad design

In the earlier example, working with lorem ipsum text was used as a time-saving device – if the designer waited until the content was ready, they may have missed the deadline.

There is an argument that using real content when presenting design comps is distracting to the client. This group believes that the client will be nit-picky about the text, and not look at the overall picture of design. In my experience, this can happen – but I’ve also had plenty of clients utterly confused at why their brochure is in “gibberish.”

“Lorem ipsum dolor has long been known as the designer’s best friend. We think it should be your enemy. Using lorem ipsum dolor reduces text-based content to a visual design element (a “shape” of text) instead of valuable information someone is going to have to enter and/or read.”

— Jason Fried, 37 Signals
“Getting Real” design tip: Just say no to Lorem Ipsum on Signals vs. Noise

“By adding Lorem Ipsum to the design you are essentially dressing your king before you know his size.”

— Design Informer, Lorem Ipsum is Killing Your Designs

When the design is completed before the content, the writers are forced to write to the space alloted by lorem ipsum. An idea that should have been two sentences is stretched on for paragraphs. Or, a complex subject requiring detailed explanation must be reduced to a sentence. As a writer, I can tell you that this is a terrible way to write. As a designer, I can also say that designing something in lorem ipsum almost ALWAYS requires a vast re-design once the real content is available.

In my experience, working with only lorem ipsum text to produce comps is a huge waste of time. It is an exercise in aesthetics, not in the communication of content.

A client might label their designer as either a professional or an amateur. But, did you know that designers classify their clients the same way?

Even if you have limited (or no) experience working with a professional graphic designer, you can still act like a pro.

The key characteristics of a professional client are:

• They are well-prepared.
• They communicate effectively and clearly.
• They trust that the designer is an expert in their field.

The Bailiwick Company wrote a terrific post: Working with Graphic Designers: Get the Most for Your Money.

Here’s an overview of their tips:

1. Finalize copy before handing it over to the design team.
2. Do not make changes piecemeal.
3. Be specific about what you’re seeking in a design.
4. If you’re uncertain about what you want, trust the designers.
5. Identify your audience and your objective.
6. Collaboration is great, confusion isn’t.
7. Let the professionals do their job.
8. The design process should not cause angst.

Read the full article here.

Piecemeal changes, confusing emails, etc. are essentially distractions from the task at hand – to create beautiful, effective work. A process full of distractions is headed for disaster. Expect the budget to take a hit as well.

Share your thoughts in the comments:

What else can clients (or designers) do to keep the project on track and the budget down?

Making beautiful work matters to design legend, Saul Bass*, and it matters to me.

“You can get much more quickly to an answer if you don’t worry about those things [making it beautiful]. It costs every designer money to make it beautiful. It means you have to spend more time, you have to futz with it, you have to noodle, you have to push, you have to pull, you have to try, you have to do. And that’s all money. You’re eating up your budget. But, that’s a commitment you either make, or you don’t make.”

– Saul Bass

Watch the full 2-minute  clip here:

I found this video clip via Jacob Cass’s blog over at Just Creative Design. View his post here.

Family and friends always ask why I don’t just leave a design project alone once it hits that “good enough” level. It looks fine. The client would be satisfied. But, it’s not beautiful. Yet.

Those extra steps are for me. Sure, the client benefits from it … but wanting and needing to take the extra steps between “good enough” and beautiful is why I’m in business for myself. It’s why I come to work each day.

Clients hire designers to take care of the aesthetics. We’re the experts. It’s up to us to make it beautiful.

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*Who is Saul Bass? Well, he’s most famous for his movie posters, but he also designed the logo for United Airlines in 1974, among others. In short, he’s pretty darn awesome.