Adding Text to Photos

The world will forgive you if your photo isn’t tack sharp on a large print. However, the world will not forgive you if the text isn’t sharp.

We’re used to seeing some blurriness in large photos, up to a point. However, we’re also used to seeing text tack sharp in large prints. And, it’s usually easy to do.

Prepare your file in Photoshop or a similar image editor. What I said in the previous question notwithstanding, increase your image size before doing a “save as.” Presumably you will be saving your Photoshop file in a JPG format. Increase the resolution of your file to at least 150, but not more than 300, pixels per inch at the print size you will be needing.

A note to those who prepare slides in PowerPoint. Before saving, go to page setup and set up your page size for custom, the largest the system will accept (e.g., about 50″ wide). Then save your slide(s) in TIF format. Doing this will make the difference between great and awful prints.