Have you ever tried to print your photos from Facebook and ended up with grainy, poor-quality prints? You are not alone.
Facebook shrinks your pictures.
Most of the photos I see from Facebook end up being about 79kb after compression. That isn't even a large enough file size to print a quality 4x6 photo.
Why would they do this? About 350 million photos are currently uploaded to Facebook every day and they have to pay to store them on servers. They save quite a bit of money by downsizing everyone's pictures and videos. Compressing the images also gives faster page loading speeds.
What does this mean for you? It means that photos you upload to Facebook will lose quality. That's fine if you are just posting them for your friends and family to see. It's not okay if you are counting on Facebook as a photo storage site.
Be sure to store your original photos elsewhere. There are many places that are suitable for photo storage. Here are a few options:
- Your computer
- External drives
- The cloud
- Digital media
- Online photo storage sites
- Print them
Pick at least two and back your photos up to both places. That way if one fails you will still have access to your photos. Be sure to store your photos in more than one location, too. I have backups in my home and in a safety deposit box at the bank. That way if fire destroys one area, the backups are still safe.
When you want to print your photos, print from an original.
Anything taken from Facebook will result in a pixelated image. Your best print quality will come from your original pictures.
What if that's all you have? If you've already lost or deleted your pictures, any pictures are better than no pictures. Download your photos from Facebook today and create a new backup.
Your Facebook photos may not be the best quality but at least you will have them. The memory is what matters the most. This topic is so important to me that it was the subject of one of my first blog posts. You can read here why I think your photos don't have to be perfect to be perfect.
So enjoy Facebook and continue to share your pictures, just don't count on them as a safe storage option.
When you have a photo to print on canvas, I'd love to work with you. Sending the original image will result in the best quality print. If you only have a Facebook print, or other small image, contact me anyway. I will work with you to create the best quality print possible for you.
Thank you for checking out this post. Be sure to sign up for my newsletter for more handy photo tips, design ideas and exclusive offers.
