You’ve found your image and you’re excited to plug it into your piece. But on the last step you get stumped – shoot, what size do you need? Do you need to buy the largest size or will the medium size do? What are ‘px’ and how many do you need? Is that the same as dpi? What if I need it bigger in the future!? Don’t worry. Let’s figure this out.
Stock websites can be confusing with their seemingly infinite options. That’s why figuring out the size requirements for your image can also be confusing. Hopefully, these quick explanations will help.
Screens require much less resolution than print and this is measured in ppi ( ‘pixels per inch’). In fact, a common screen measurement is 72ppi while print is usually around 300dpi (dots per inch). Just over four times bigger! Surprising, eh? Here’s a handy calculator to figure out specifics. Generally, if your image is being printed, you will likely need a larger size.
What even are the ‘px’ that the image size comes in and how many do you need? Px stands for ‘pixels’ and thousands of pixels are what make up our displays. Let’s say you’re considering a newer laptop with a screen resolution of 2560px wide and 1600px high. Our medium image size at 3000px by 2000px will fill it beautifully.
How many ‘pixels’ do you need for your printed photo? You need 3 pieces of info – the size of the image in height and width (in inches) and the output resolution of the print. Likely you already know what size you want your final print to be. If you’re unsure of the resolution, just ask whoever is printing it for you. Design Resources created a very useful little chart that lays out common resolution requirements.
Well, this is where it gets interesting/nerdy. The size you need for your printed piece depends on the viewing distance. A magazine that will be viewed closely needs a much higher dpi (around 300dpi) because you're up close. However, if the image is going to be on a billboard far away you need a much lower dpi (around 20dpi) as you'll be too far to see all those small details.
Let's consider a sprinkle doughnut (really think about it, wouldn’t that hit the spot right now?). In your hand you will see all the colourful sprinkles, but if you were to put that doughnut on the top of a building you would only see the shape of the doughnut. No sprinkles. Same thing goes for dpi. It’s overkill to put an image with a high dpi on the top of a building because you'll just see the general shape of the image and not all that extra detail.
Hopefully, that helps clear things up. We understand that each situation may be less straightforward. If you need some further clarification, don’t hesitate to reach out or leave a comment and we will guide you through the process. And, even if you end up purchasing an image from us that’s too small, we're happy to sort out an upgrade for you. No biggie.
To see what images sizes we offer, have a look on our pricing page. All dimensions and possible uses are listed there.