Web images optimise for speed; print images optimise for fidelity. Using a web file for print, or a print file for web, causes most avoidable image problems.
The same photograph needs to be two different files depending on where it is going. A web image is judged on how fast it loads and how good it looks on a screen. A print image is judged on how faithfully ink reproduces it on paper. Those goals pull in opposite directions, which is why a single "high quality" export rarely serves both.
The four variables that differ
Resolution and dimensions
Screens care about pixel dimensions. A banner displayed 1600 pixels wide needs an image around 1600 to 3200 pixels wide, depending on whether you are serving high-density displays. The abstract DPI value stored in the file metadata is irrelevant on screen.
Print cares about pixels per physical inch. Commercial printing generally wants 300 PPI at final size, so an image printed 8 inches wide needs roughly 2400 pixels. Large-format work viewed from a distance can accept 150 PPI or less, while fine art reproduction may want more.
Colour space
Screens emit light and use additive RGB colour. Presses lay down ink and use subtractive CMYK. Certain vivid RGB colours — intense oranges, electric blues, saturated greens — simply cannot be reproduced in CMYK, which is why prints sometimes look duller than the screen preview. Web images should be sRGB, the universally assumed screen colour space. Print work should be converted to the CMYK profile your printer specifies.
Compression tolerance
On a screen at typical viewing distance, moderate lossy compression is invisible. On paper at 300 PPI, compression artefacts around edges and in gradients can become visible, and they are permanent. Print files should be lossless or very lightly compressed.
File size priority
For web, every kilobyte costs load time and, on mobile, data. For print, file size is nearly irrelevant — a 200 MB TIFF is unremarkable in a professional print workflow.
Best formats for the web
- WebP — the current default. Smaller than JPG at equivalent quality, supports transparency and animation, and works in every modern browser.
- JPG — the universal fallback for photographic content. Quality 80 to 85 is the practical sweet spot.
- PNG — for logos, icons, screenshots, diagrams, and anything needing transparency or exact pixels.
- SVG — for vector logos, icons, and illustrations. Resolution-independent and often only a few kilobytes.
- AVIF — smaller still than WebP, with slightly narrower support; worth using where a fallback is available.
To move between the raster formats, the Image Converter handles PNG, JPG, and WebP in your browser, and the Image Compressor lets you find the lowest quality setting that still looks right.
Best formats for print
- TIFF — the traditional print standard. Lossless, supports CMYK and layers, universally accepted by printers.
- PDF/X — the preferred delivery format for complete documents, embedding fonts, images, and colour profiles reliably.
- PNG — acceptable for smaller print jobs and graphics, though it is RGB-only.
- High-quality JPG — usable at quality 95 or above when file transfer is constrained, but avoid re-saving.
- Native vector formats — best for logos and type, since they scale to any size without loss.
If you need to assemble images into a print-ready document, Image to PDF builds a PDF from one or more images locally. Keep the source images at full resolution when doing this — the PDF cannot add detail that is not there.
The mistakes that cause real problems
Using a web image for print
This is the most common and most frustrating. A 800-pixel-wide image downloaded from a website prints about 2.7 inches wide at 300 PPI. Enlarging it produces soft, pixelated output, and no amount of upscaling genuinely recovers detail. Always go back to the original camera file for print.
Using a print image on the web
Uploading a 40 MB, 6000-pixel TIFF to a web page — or a browser-resized version of it — wastes enormous bandwidth and can make a page unusable on mobile. Resize to display dimensions with the Image Resizer before publishing.
Forgetting high-density screens
Most phones and many laptops render at two or three device pixels per CSS pixel. An image displayed at 400 CSS pixels wide should be exported around 800 pixels wide to look crisp. Serving exactly the CSS dimension results in noticeably soft images on modern hardware.
Repeated re-saving
Every lossy save degrades the image. Editing a JPG, saving, reopening, editing again, and saving again compounds artefacts. Keep a lossless master — PNG or TIFF — and export lossy copies only as the final step.
A workable two-track workflow
- Archive the original camera file untouched. This is your master; never overwrite it.
- For print: export at final size and 300 PPI, in the colour profile your printer specifies, as TIFF or PDF/X, with minimal compression.
- For web: resize to twice the largest display width, convert to WebP with a JPG fallback, compress to the lowest acceptable quality, and confirm the result at full size.
- Test print files on the actual output device and web files on an actual phone before committing.
Keeping these two tracks separate takes a few extra minutes and eliminates the two worst outcomes: blurry print and sluggish pages.