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The Resolution of Facebook Photos and What It Means for Printing
By Lauren Skidmore of PhotoStasher
I'm sure by now you have used the new photo viewer on Facebook and you may have even read my post "Facebook Privacy and Your Photos" where I describe the new photo viewer in depth and outline the implications it will have on you as a Facebook user. 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 4x6 and maybe a 5x7 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 the quality of the photo. 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. 600x800 or 425+ kb file size = up to 10x13
400x600 or 25-44 kb file size = up to 8x12
399x599 or 1-25 kb file size = up to 4x6
(Some companies will analyze the photo for you and tell you how large you can print it. PhotoStasher does this through our Facebook App.) 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!
I am the founder of PhotoStasher, a professional photo printing company that specializes in printing Facebook photos. I also run the PhotoStasher blog that gives how-to's and tips, entertains, and inspires photographers of all skill levels. I enjoy reading, working out, running, and learning everything I can about social media, blogging, and the internet.
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http://blog.photostasher.com
| http://www.photostasher.com/About-PhotoStasher.htm
PhotoStasher
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 |  | nick appreciated this intel. Apr 11, 2011 |  | | crawfish recommended this intel. Apr 11, 2011 |  | | Karen Laws appreciated this intel. Apr 11, 2011 |  | | R Foreman recommended this intel. Jun 3, 2011 |  | | biblefreeorg loved this intel. Jun 3, 2011 |
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I'm surprised Facebook took that step. You look at Haystack and the scale is just mind-boggling - hundreds of millions of new photos a week. Most engineers would have a hard time coping with a million new files a week. And then they had to go and increase the resolution.
 | | nick Apr 12, 2011 02:35 | |
CONTRIBUTOR'S REPLY
I agree Nick. It's pretty unbelievable. I guess they decided that the need was so great that they had to do it.
I have some extra pixels you can have if you need some to add to photos. LOL
CONTRIBUTOR'S REPLY
haha that would be nice. If only it was that easy!
I think sometimes people put low resolution pictures on Facebook so that they aren't copied or printed. Somewhat of a protection of intellectual property.
CONTRIBUTOR'S REPLY
One of the reasons that they're lower resolution too is because people post photos from their camera phones. One thing that I tell people to remember is that if someone can see your photos they can print them by clicking "Download" or right clicking and saving. Mostly though I think that people will only want to print someone's photos if they are in the photos or at the same event.
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http://laurenskidmore.qondio.com/
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