Jade Black provides great customer service at Office Depot in Menomonee Falls, WI
After finding several great social media infographics on-line, I sent them to the Menomonee Falls, WI, Office Depot for color copies. While the images were crisp and clear on my computer screen, they weren’t when they came out of the printer. Everything was blurry, making the text unreadable. Of course I was disappointed.
That’s when Office Depot Associate Jade Black introduced herself, educated me on some printing elementals and then handed me the sharp, bright infographics I had wanted all along. So, Jade (who’s also an illustrator and graphic designer — THANK YOU!
Now, here’s the information she gave me for “smooth sailing” the next time I send a printer a digital document for copying.
- The web standard for images is 72 pixels (short for picture element)
- When we print something, however, it’s DPI (dots per inch) that matter, not pixels
- The more DPI, the better the copy
- (After my chat with Jade, I found another great explanation from webdesignerdepot.com:
- A pixel…is the smallest unit of measure on a grid displaying a digital [emphasis added] image. DPI measures how big those pixels, or dots, are when they’re printed. [emphasis added]).
- Strive for at least 300 DPI in images meant for print
So, the next time I use Google Images (which is where I found the infographics mentioned above), Jade showed me a little trick to find the right-sized image for printing:
- Go to Google Images
- Enter the key words for the type of image you’re looking for
- Go to “Search Tools”
- Go to “Size”
- Pick “Large” (or “Extra Large” if you want)
- Now all of the images you scroll thru/select will be at least 300 DPI
(Had you kept the default size “Any Size,” you’d be seeing images that include those under 300 DPI — you don’t want that.) - If you hover over the image you’re interested in, you’ll see the dimensions. Now, these dimensions are pixels, not DPI — but the concept works pretty much the same way. So, select images that have larger dimensions (remember that 300 is the magic number). Note from Jade: Google doesn’t read its images in DPI; the web works mainly off of pixels. The DPI of an image can be looked at in design programs like Photoshop.
As of today, I have several clients whom I’ve made happy with beautiful color infographics; I’ve learned something new (which reduces my stress and helps me talk better with printers); and, hopefully, you’ve been helped thru this post. All because Jade Black of Office Depot decided to go the extra mile for a stranger.