I'm sure by now you have used the new photo viewer on Facebook. Facebook's creation of the photo viewer was a part of their overhaul of Photos, one of if not the most popular types of content that users create, share, and consume on Facebook. Included in this restructuring was the ability to upload higher resolution photos to Facebook, a feature that Facebook rightly recognized as a need of users and implemented.
With this exciting new feature comes an inevitable downside, it takes longer to upload photos in high res, a lot longer. Actually, according to Facebook, about 10 times longer. Everything worthwhile comes with a price though right? It's up to you to decide if it's worth your time.
How do you know? What advantages are there to uploading your photos in high resolution?
Facebook has increased the size of photos by 20% to 720 dpi so that you can post higher quality photos. This makes viewing better, but it also increases print quality as well. This along with the ability to download any photo gives you the tools you need to print Facebook photos.
How large can you print photos with this increase in resolution? Is there any way to print even larger photos? If you print most photos on Facebook at their current resolution you will probably be able to get a 4×6 and maybe a 5×7 in good quality without any enhancement to the photo. Notice that I said probably. This is because each photo is different. Some photos are cropped a lot which decreases 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! These are fine for posting on Facebook, but not great for printing.
Now if you are ordering from a company that enhances Facebook photos when you order them, the following chart is an approximation of what size prints you can expect to be able to print. Remember, each company will enhance photos differently and you should get information from them about how large to print Facebook photos before you print them. It is also difficult to know how photos will look until you print them. So it's best to consult with the company you are ordering from and run your own “tests” to get an idea of how large 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 how large you can print it.)
Remember, the above chart is just a guideline for how large you can print Facebook photos if they are enhanced by a photo printing company. The best thing for you to do is to order some prints and experiment to see how the photos turn out and how large you are able to print them. If larger prints are grainy and pixelated then you printed them too large for their lower resolution. If they are very clear and high quality, then you may be able to print them a size larger.
Unfortunately, printing Facebook photos is not an exact science and takes some experimentation and patience. Once you've got a good idea for how large you can print photos of a certain resolution you will have a baseline from which you can determine how large to print photos in the future.
One important point: Photo printers DO NOT affect or have control over how a photo turns out as a result of its resolution. If a photo is low resolution and the print is pixelated or grainy then please understand that this is not the printer's fault. They print photos exactly how you order them. They cannot add pixels to a photo that aren't there. It is your responsibility to make sure that the photos that you are sending them are a high enough resolution to be printed as large as you have requested. Printers should definitely take responsibility for mistakes that they make; however, it is important for the customer to understand that print quality based on resolution is beyond the printer's control.
I hope you found this article useful and that it clarified the resolution of Facebook photos and the effect it has on the quality of prints.
Do you have any questions or comments? What's your opinion about resolution and printing? I look forward to hearing from you! Source: http://www.facebook.com/blog.php?post=337389082130
