How to ensure a maximum print quality for your Classic Pro prints

Our humble advices

Color management

  • Please send images in RGB mode (not CMYK).
  • Avoid greyscale images for black and white prints. Please de-saturate images instead.

Color management is a complex topic. We recommend Arnaud Frich's website for useful information about color management (in French).


File types

We accept JPG and TIFF formats up to 150 Mb. The JPG format with low compression is usually sufficient for good results. The TIFF format with ZIP or LZW lossless compression is recommended for large prints of retouched photos.

   

Download our color profiles

The only way to achieve perfect respect of original colors is to prepare your images with our ICC color profiles on a calibrated screen.

   

File size and resolution

Perfect quality is achieved with a resolution of 300 dpi for formats up to 21×30. Please use a resolution of 254 dpi for larger formats, which will still give a very high quality. Nevertheless, lower resolutions can give good results as well but not as perfect as higher resolutions. We do not advise to use resolutions below 150 dpi, except for JPG or TIFF images with hardly any compression which can accept 100 dpi resolution.


   

What if my file is too small?

  • Don't be afraid, as we will accept it anyway. If while ordering prints, you get an indication that your file would in an insufficient resolution, you can still proceed with your order and we will do our best to maximize the quality. Even if we are obsessed with quality, our customer service department will contact you if the resolution is really too small.
  • If your original file is too small, please send it us anyway instead of trying to make it bigger using photo editor software like Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro, ACDSee or iPhoto. We own professional tools that can handle this task, named “interpolation”, in an optimal manner.
   

Cropping

If your image is not proportional to the chosen print format, you can either:

1. Print the entire image and get white margins

Your image is fully printed on the selected paper format. White margins appear either above and below the image, or to the left and to the right.

This is the default printing solution: it will apply unless you request a different option when placing your order.

2. or let us crop the image so that the whole surface is printed

You won't get any white margins but parts of your image will not be printed. You cannot adjust the way image will be cropped: it will be centered.

You can switch between uncropped and cropped mode by clicking on images when preparing your order.

 

Going further

Print technical quality indicators

Megapixels
Format Ratio Actual size (cm) 2 3 5 8 10 15 20 25
9×13 9 × 12.7
10×15 2/3 10.2 × 15.2
11×15 3/4 11 × 15.2
10×21 Panoramic 10.2 × 21
13×19 2/3 12.7 × 19
12×30 Panoramic 12.7 × 30.5
12×18 2/3 12 × 17.8
13×13 Square 1/1 12.7 × 12.7
13×18 3/4 12.7 × 17.8
14×21 2/3 14 × 21
15×15 Square 1/1 15.2 × 15.2
15×21 3/4 15.2 × 21
15×23 2/3 15.2 × 23
18×18 Square 1/1 17.8 × 17.8
18×24 3/4 17.8 × 24
18×27 2/3 17.8 × 27
21×21 Square 1/1 21 × 21
21×30 2/3 21 × 30.5
A4 21 × 29.7
24×30 24 × 30.5
24×36 2/3 24 × 36

 

   

Actual print quality depends on resolution but also on photo subject, image compression level and your own subjectivity as a photographer.

Furthermore, depending on how you expose your print and the distance of observation (from a few centimeters for a small print to several meters for an exhibition), the perceived quality will differ.