Images are an important addition to your visual identity. It doesn't matter if you're a small business selling products online or a major company doing business internationally. You could even be a new blogger building a personal identity, and you'll still need images to help you get your message across. This is why it’s very important that you create, choose, and publish high-quality images that your potential audience will enjoy.
Still, even if you originally have high-quality images, you might lose that quality as you publish them. This is because different platforms require different image sizes and might ask you to change yours. It could influence image quality negatively. But, we’ll show you how to stay on the safe side.
Here’s what you need to know to maintain high-quality images for publication.
- What Defines Image Quality?
Let's first take a closer look at the parameters you'll need to be familiar with if you want to make sure you're publishing nothing but high-quality images.
What are the factors that define an image as high-quality?
Here’s what you need to know:
- Resolution
The image resolution is an important factor that defines image-quality. It's essentially the number of pixels in an image. And, pixels are very small elements of a picture that can be seen as small squares of color, if we zoom in.
- High-resolution images have at least 300ppi (pixels per inch). That means the image is sharp, clear, and can be printed or published online without worrying.
- Low-resolution images have usually around 75ppi, which makes them a nightmare for printing and could come across as blurry when you publish them online.
- Image size
Image size tells us the width and height of an image. Depending on the type of publication you're looking into, you'll need to rethink the size of your image.
However, it’s important to understand that size and resolution go hand in hand. And, if you want a high-quality image, you’ll need to ensure there’s at least 300ppi on both sides of the image.
So, a 5 x 8-inch image will need to be 1500 x 2100 pixels in size (5x300 and 8x300).
The math is simple, but it’s not always that easy to maintain that image quality.
- How to Maintain High-Quality Images for Publication?
Now that you understand the parameters that define a high-quality image, let’s take a look at the tips on how to maintain image quality when you’re publishing them.
First things first, you’ll need to learn about the requirements of the platform you’re trying to publish your photos on.
Social media platforms, websites, or blogs all have different types of image format requirements and might ask you to change your original image size.
Here are the steps you’ll need to follow.
- Learn About the Image Requirements
Depending on where you’re trying to post and publish your image, you’ll need to learn what size are they asking you to use.
This will help you prepare your image before publishing it. That way, you’ll avoid:
- to have your image automatically cropped or resized
- losing image quality
- losing a part of the image due to improper fitting
Make sure to understand what size should your image be.
Here’s a couple of examples:
- Instagram shared photo: 1080 pixels wide
- Facebook cover photo: 820 x 312 pixels
- WordPress featured image size: 1200 x 628 pixels
- Facebook ad: 1200 x 628 pixels
- business email image size: 600px to 650 pixels
- Twitter Profile Photo: 400 x 400 pixels
As you can see, the requirements will differ from one platform to the other. Gather the right information to be able to adjust your images yourself, and not have them changed without your control.
- Choose a High-Quality Photo
To make sure you’re maintaining the quality in an image, you need to start the process with a high-quality image.
If you're taking those pictures yourself, you'll adjust your camera, and rest assured the settings are right.
But, if you’re downloading the image from a royalty-free image website, watch the parameters you’re choosing. Most sites will offer you to choose:
- image size
- image quality
“Let’s say you’re writing a blog and you need a great feature image from a royalty-free website. Download the original size or the highest-quality one to make sure the image isn’t going through any changes in this process. Then, you’ll be able to adjust it to your blog size requirements without much trouble,” saysKristin Savage, a blogger and a contributing writer for https://subjecto.com/, educational website.
- Choose app to resize your images
Once you choose the right image and you know how you want to change it, all you need to do is to get started with the process.
It’s very simple and you’ll have your image ready in seconds. Here’s how it usually works:
- upload
Drag and drop or choose your image from a file on your computer. If you use photo there are also a lot of options.
- settings
Take a look at the different parameters you can set, to make your image a perfect fit for your publication needs. You can crop the image first and then do the necessary settings. You’ll be able to control and choose:
- image size
- optimization
- file type
Set these parameters based on your publication needs and you’ll be saving the image quality while getting exactly what you need for your visual presentation.
- download
Once you figure out the right settings for your desired image, all you have left to do is save the changes and download it back to your computer. Then, you can go ahead and publish your picture without being afraid the quality will be damaged or the image will be anything else but crystal clear. You can easily turn an image into any format you want, without much trouble.
- Pro Tip: Use Adobe Photoshop
Naturally, there are other ways you can change and optimize your images without losing the quality. Adobe Photoshop is one of the most widely-known tools for image editing, used by professional photographers, marketers, and graphic designers.
However, to use Photoshop you’ll need to:
- pay for it
- learn how to do it right
- put some practice in it
This is a great tool for professionals whose job is to handle and edit images.
Source: https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic/can-t-edit-the-photos-on-photoshop-if-i-use-quot-open-as-layers-in-photoshop-quot-option/td-p/10204907
- Final Thoughts
Maintaining high-quality images for publication is an important step in the process of building your brand, public image, or simply your relationship with the people who follow your work. You don’t want to seem unprofessional and jeopardize your credibility by publishing low-resolution or improperly cropped images.
Therefore, make sure to develop your strategy for publishing nothing but high-quality images. Hopefully, the tips we’ve provided above will help you maintain your image quality and have an impeccable publishing strategy.
