The resolution of Facebook photos and what it means for printing
Surely you have already used the new Facebook photo viewer. Facebook’s creation of the photo viewer was part of its Photos review, one of the if not tea The most popular types of content users create, share, and consume on Facebook. Included in this revamp was the ability to upload higher-resolution photos to Facebook, a feature Facebook rightly recognized as a user need and implemented.
With this exciting new feature comes an unavoidable downside: it takes longer to load high-resolution photos, much longer. Actually, according to Facebook, about 10 times more. Everything worthwhile has a price, right? It’s up to you to decide if it’s worth your time.
How do you know? What are the advantages of uploading your photos in high resolution?
Facebook has increased the size of photos by 20% at 720 dpi so you can post higher quality photos. This improves viewing, but also increases print quality. This, along with the ability to download any photo, gives you the tools you need to print Facebook photos.
How big can you print photos at this increased resolution? Is there a way to print even larger photos? If you print most photos on Facebook at their current resolution, you’ll probably be able to get a 4×6 and maybe a 5×7 in good quality without any enhancement to the photo. Notice I said probably. This is because each photo is different. Some photos are cropped a lot, lowering their quality. Others come from camera phones, and while some camera phones produce high-quality photos, most give you low-quality photos. You can imagine what happens if you crop a photo from a camera phone! They’re fine for posting to Facebook, but not great for printing.
Now if you are ordering from a company that improvement Facebook photos when you ask for them, the following table is a approach what size prints you can expect to be able to print. Remember, each company will enhance photos differently and you should get information about the print size of Facebook photos from them before you print them. It’s also hard to know what photos will look like until you print them. So it’s best to check with the company you’re ordering from and run your own “tests” to get an idea of what size you can print certain photos.
600×800 or 425+ kb file size = up to 10×13 400×600 or 25-44 kb file size = up to 8×12 399×599 or 1-25 kb file size = up to 4×6 (Some companies will analyze the photo for you and tell you what size you can print.)
Remember, the chart above is just a guide to how big Facebook photos can print if enhanced by a photo printing company. The best thing to do is order a few prints and experiment to see how the photos turn out and what size you can print them. If the larger prints are grainy and pixelated, it means you printed them too large for your lower resolution. If they are very clear and of high quality, you may be able to print them in a larger size.
Unfortunately, printing Facebook photos isn’t an exact science and requires some experimentation and patience. Once you have a good idea of how large photos of a given resolution can print, you’ll have a baseline from which you can determine the print size of photos in the future.
An important point: photo printers do NOT affect or have control over the outcome of a photo as a result of its resolution. If a photo is low resolution and the print is pixelated or grainy, please understand that this is not the printer’s fault. They print photos exactly as you ask. They can’t add pixels to a photo that aren’t there. It is your responsibility to ensure that the photos you send them are of a high enough resolution to print them in the size you have requested. Printers definitely need to take responsibility for the mistakes they make; however, it is important that the customer understand that resolution-based print quality is beyond the control of the printer.
I hope you found this article helpful and clarified Facebook photo resolution and the effect it has on print quality.
Do you have a question or comment? What is your opinion on resolution and printing? I look forward to hearing from you! Source: http://www.facebook.com/blog.php?post=337389082130