How do you blow up a picture for a funeral?

Check first, enlarge second

The order matters more than the tool. Almost every disappointing memorial print is one that was ordered at a chosen size and then discovered to be soft; almost every good one is a size chosen after somebody looked at what the file held.

The free print-size check does that in a few seconds on your own computer. It reads the pixel dimensions, subtracts the crop each frame shape costs, and gives you a verdict at both 300 and 200 DPI for every standard size from 5x7 to 24x36. The photograph is never uploaded.

For the arithmetic by hand: multiply the inches by 300. A 16x20 needs 4800x6000 pixels, a 20x24 needs 6000x7200, and a 24x36 needs 7200x10800 — which is a 78 megapixel camera, and almost no photograph reaches it. At 200 DPI, multiply by 200 instead, which is two-thirds of each figure: 3200x4000 for a 16x20.

What enlarging actually adds

Ordinary resampling — the "make it bigger" in any photo app — adds nothing at all. It spreads the same detail over more pixels and puts a larger number in the file. A print shop asked to blow up a small file is doing exactly this, and the result is the same softness at a larger scale.

A super-resolution model does better. It reconstructs edges and texture rather than smoothing between pixels, and it typically buys about one step up the size list: acceptable at 11x14 where the file was honest at 8x10. Our enlargement runs in your browser alongside everything else, reports its result as a separate figure rather than folding it into the check, and shows it next to the original so you can decide.

What no software adds is information. If the face occupies 300 pixels in the source, there is no tool that knows what her eyes looked like at 3000 pixels — and the ones that appear to know are guessing, which on a portrait of a specific person is the worst possible failure. That is why nothing here rebuilds a face.

Getting it printed

Any local print shop, photo counter or online lab will print an enlargement. Some pharmacy photo counters print poster sizes the same day; check their sizes and cut-off times before you go. The funeral home can often arrange it too, so ask what they charge and when it would be ready.

Give them a file at the exact pixel dimensions for the size. Most labs print whatever size you order, but a printer or layout program that sizes the picture from the file reads its DPI field, and a file without one is often treated as 72 DPI. Our exports carry the correct pixel dimensions and the DPI for each size, and the ZIP includes a read-me listing which file is which.

Ask the funeral home what their easels take before ordering. 20x24 is the most common answer and 18x24 is the next; a print cut for one will not sit correctly in a mat for the other.

If the picture cannot reach the size

Print it smaller, and choose the frame to match. A sharp 11x14 beside the flowers reads as a portrait; a soft 24x36 reads as a blow-up. Nobody in the room is holding your original plan against it.

Then look once more for a better source before settling. The original of a Facebook download is usually still on somebody’s phone, and a paper print photographed properly with a phone will beat almost any file that has been through a messaging app.

Related

• The only photo we have is too small to print. What now?
• What size photo do you need for a funeral service?
• How do you photograph an old print with a phone so it prints well?