Making Sure Artwork is High Quality and Prints Clearly

How can I make sure my artwork is high-resolution enough? 

Low-resolution artwork can look jagged and less than beautiful when printed. 

We recommend a minimum of 300 dpi (dots per inch) at the size that the image, text, or illustration will be printed. 

You can check your image's dpi most easily in Adobe Photoshop: go to Image -> Image Size, then check the line that says "Resolution." You want at least 300 dpi. 

If you're checking in Preview, go to Tools -> Adjust Size. At the bottom, it will give you the resolution, which should be at least 300 dpi. 

Make sure to also check the size of the image! If it's 300 dpi at one centimeter by one centimeter, that won't work when it gets blown up to cover the outside of your Scout Book! You can change the units from pixels to inches when checking the size and resolution. 

Vectorized images are preferred and easiest to work with! 

What's the difference between vector and raster? 

Raster images are built out of pixels, while vector images are made up of points and paths, allowing them to scale infinitely without losing image quality. 

When rasterized images are scaled, their resolution will change.

Vector images are usually created by drawing or creating the image directly in Adobe Illustrator or similar drawing software.