How do I get photos printed so they actually look good?

A photograph that looks superb on a phone can be a disappointment on paper, and the three reasons are entirely predictable. Fixing them takes a few minutes per print.

Step by step

1. Work out how large your file can print.Divide the pixel dimensions by about 300 to get a comfortable print size in inches. A 24 megapixel file at 6000 by 4000 pixels prints to 20 by 13 inches at 300 pixels per inch. Large prints viewed from further away work fine at 150 to 200, so the limit is softer than it sounds.
2. Match the aspect ratio deliberately.Most cameras produce 3:2, most phones 4:3, and common print sizes are 6x4 (3:2), 7x5 (7:5) and 8x6 (4:3). Ordering a 4:3 phone photograph as a 6x4 means something gets cut off, and the lab will decide what unless you crop it yourself first.
3. Brighten before printing.A screen emits light; a print reflects it. The same file is always darker on paper. Lifting the exposure by roughly a third to two-thirds of a stop, and lifting the shadows a little, usually matches what you saw. Labs that offer a test print are worth using once to calibrate your own judgement.
4. Sharpen after resizing, for print.Resize to the print dimensions, then sharpen. Print sharpening is stronger than screen sharpening because ink spreads slightly into the paper. It will look faintly over-sharpened on screen, which is correct.
5. Choose the paper for the picture.Gloss is punchy with deep blacks and shows every fingerprint and reflection. Lustre or satin is the sensible default for most photographs. Matt is flatter and more subdued, and suits soft, high-key and black-and-white images, at the cost of contrast.
6. Export in the right colour space.Most consumer labs expect sRGB. Sending a file in a wider space to a lab expecting sRGB produces flat, undersaturated prints. If the lab specifies otherwise, follow their guidance.
7. Order a small test first.For anything going large or being framed, print a small version, or a crop of the important part at full size, from the same lab. It costs very little and reveals colour and brightness differences before you commit.
8. Consider the display conditions.A print that will hang in a dim hallway needs to be brighter than one for a sunlit room. Prints behind glass lose a little contrast; prints in direct sun fade over years regardless of the process.
9. Choose a lab rather than a supermarket kiosk for anything you care about.Proper photo labs use better paper and calibrated printers, and many offer a no-auto-correct option so your own editing is respected rather than being adjusted by their software.

Tips

• Turn off any automatic correction the lab applies if you have edited the file yourself. Otherwise their software will second-guess your work.
• Black and white prints are worth ordering from a lab that offers a true black and white process — colour printers produce subtle casts in neutral tones.
• Keep the full-resolution file. Printing from a copy that has been through messaging apps is the most common cause of a soft, pixelated print.

Common mistakes

• Printing a photograph shared through a messaging app — Messaging services heavily compress and resize images, often to a fraction of the original resolution. The print is soft and blocky and there is nothing to be done about it afterwards. Always print from the original.
• Not checking the crop — Different print sizes have different shapes. Ordering without cropping yourself means the lab crops for you, usually centred, which routinely removes the top of somebody's head.
• Judging the file on a bright phone screen — Phone screens are far brighter than paper and often set to maximum. A file that looks correct there prints noticeably dark.

If it doesn't work

Questions people ask