It is a bad feeling. You open the box of business cards, and the logo looks soft. The edges are fuzzy. It does not look like the one on your screen.

It is not your printer’s fault most of the time. It is the file.

Reason 1: The file is too small

Screens show about 72 to 96 pixels per inch. Print needs about 300. A logo that is 500 pixels wide looks fine on a website. On paper, it only fills about 1.7 inches before it starts to blur.

Reason 2: It is a screenshot or a saved copy

Many logos get saved from a website, a chat app or social media. Each time, the quality drops a little. By the time it reaches the printer, the edges are already soft.

Reason 3: Someone stretched it

When you drag a small image to make it bigger, the program has to invent new pixels. That is what causes the blur. It cannot add detail that was never there.

Reason 4: JPG compression

JPG saves space by throwing away data. Around the edges of letters you may see little spots and smudges. They are easy to miss on screen, but print shows them.

Reason 5: It was never a vector

This is the main one. A logo made of pixels will always have a limit. A vector logo has no limit. You can print it on a pen or on the side of a building.

How to fix it

• Ask whoever made your logo for the original vector file (AI, EPS, SVG or PDF).
• If you cannot find one, get the logo vectorized. It is a one-time job.
• Send your printer the vector file, not a PNG or JPG.

A note about dull colors

If the print is not blurry but the colors look flat, that is a different problem. Screens use RGB and printers use CMYK. A good vector file includes a CMYK version so the colors are ready for print.

Want a clean file?

I turn blurry logos into sharp vector files, and each one is checked for print before it goes out. See how it works or send me your logo.