How To Prevent Low-Resolution Image Uploads
A customer orders a photo mug and uploads a tiny image someone sent them on WhatsApp. The order goes through, but when the print is prepared you discover that the photo is too small to use.
Now you have to ask for a different photo and wait for the customer to send it. We need to catch that problem while the customer is still filling out the form.
What Does “Too Small” Mean?
Images have a width and height measured in pixels. A photo that is 300 × 300 pixels has much less image data to work with than one that is 1800 × 1800 pixels.
There’s also DPI (Dots Per Inch), which instructs the printer how many ink dots to plot per inch of paper, this is separate from the pixel density of an image.
If our product needs a larger photo, enlarging a tiny one won’t add the missing detail. The result will look soft or pixelated.
A photo can take up several megabytes and still have too few pixels for what we need. Looking at the file size alone won’t tell us whether it has suitable dimensions.
Set A Minimum Image Size
When our print needs an image of 1200 × 1200 pixels or more, we can tell CropGuide to require that width and height as a minimum.
When a customer selects a smaller photo, CropGuide tells them it doesn’t meet the minimum size. They can choose another photo before submitting the form, instead of finding out after we’ve received the order.
If the user does upload a bigger image CropGuide also guards against the user then making a smaller crop than our minimum required size, ensuring that we always receive a quality image.
What If The Photo Is Large Enough But Still Blurry?
Minimum dimensions are a useful first check but that doesn’t mean that every accepted photo will be razor sharp.
A blurry camera photo may have plenty of pixels. A screenshot of a small photo can also be saved as a large image without gaining any detail. CropGuide can check the photo’s dimensions, but it can’t bring back detail that wasn’t there in the first place.
Add The Minimum Image Size Check To An Existing Upload Form
We don’t need to make any changes to our existing form or image-processing setup. We set the minimum size in the CropGuide dashboard and add the CropGuide script to our page with our existing file upload field.
The customer chooses their photo as usual. If it’s too small, CropGuide lets them know while they’re on the page. If the image meets your defined requirements, they can continue and the form uploads it to the same destination as before.
The image is processed in the customer’s browser; it isn’t uploaded to CropGuide servers. Our installation guide explains how to add the script, and the integration guides cover popular website builders.
If the photo also needs a particular shape, we can for example require a square crop as a separate setting.
That’s it. We can now catch undersized photos before they become prints we have to fix. If you’d like to see the editing step first, try the live demo.
