Will an AI Pet Portrait Actually Look Sharp When Printed?
Yes, up to 18x24 inches. Every selected design is upscaled to roughly 3,584 x 4,800 pixels, which works out to about 299 DPI at 12x16 inches and 199 DPI at 18x24. Anything that would print below 150 DPI is blocked at checkout rather than shipped, which is exactly why we do not sell a 24x36 size.
What DPI actually means here
DPI is how many dots of your image land in one printed inch. The same file is razor sharp on a postcard and soft on a poster, because the pixels get spread over more inches. We compute it the plain way:
effective DPI = master file pixel width / printed width in inches
If you zoom in or crop inside the layout step, the visible part of the file covers the same paper with fewer pixels, so the effective DPI drops. Our server recalculates it on every move and never trusts a number sent from the browser.
Our three thresholds: 300, 200, 150
- 300 DPI and above — recommended. This is the print industry reference for photographic work, and the layout shows a clean pass.
- 200 to 299 DPI — a warning. Usually fine at normal viewing distance for wall art. You can proceed, but we tell you first.
- Below 150 DPI — blocked. The order cannot move forward with that layout. We would rather lose the sale than print something you would be disappointed to unwrap.
The same thresholds apply to all four physical products. The check runs twice: once while you position the artwork, and once again at export time using the real master file pixels, so a stale number cannot slip through.
The exact numbers, size by size
With a master file about 3,584 pixels wide and the artwork filling the print area:
- 8x10 inches: roughly 448 DPI — comfortably above recommended
- 12x16 inches: roughly 299 DPI — essentially the 300 DPI reference
- 18x24 inches: roughly 199 DPI — inside the acceptable band for wall art
- 24x36 inches: roughly 149 DPI — below our floor, so we do not offer it
That last line is the honest answer to the question everyone really asks. We could list a 24x36 poster and most buyers would never do the arithmetic. It is not on the site because it does not pass our own check.
The print canvases we actually send to the printer
Print files are composed to the exact canvas each product needs, verified against the printer API rather than assumed:
- Framed poster 12x16: 3,600 x 4,800 px — 18x24: 5,400 x 7,200 px
- Matte and luster posters 8x10: 2,400 x 3,000 px — 12x16: 3,600 x 4,800 px
- Luster poster 18x24: 5,400 x 7,200 px
- Postcard 4x6: 1,240 x 1,842 px, the one product with a bleed area
Every production file is exported with an explicit sRGB colour profile attached, so the printer is not left guessing how to interpret the colours.
What is still a limitation
The master file is enlarged from the generated image rather than generated at poster resolution. That is enough for the sizes we sell, and it is why the size list stops where it stops. Fine text or hair-thin detail is the first thing to soften on the largest size, so if your photo is mostly fine detail, the 12x16 sizes will look better than 18x24.