How to Avoid Pixelation in Your Designs

Working as a graphic designer at FixThePhoto, I am often asked about pixelation in design, which prompted me to write this detailed guide for our readers. Our clients wonder why some pictures become pixelated when they enlarge them or prepare them for printing.

For professionals, it’s important to grasp the meaning of pixelation to avoid common issues degrading image quality. Choosing the most suitable file format, image size, and export settings allows graphic designers to give their projects a polished look.

It’s the smallest unit of a raster picture. This is why I use the term pixelation in graphic design to describe an effect that happens when it becomes possible for a viewer to see individual pixels in an image. While high-quality pictures look perfectly smooth, pixelated pictures might be blocky or blurry.

It is a common situation when one significantly stretches an image or saves it in poor quality. Working as a designer, I know well enough that pixelated images may substantially affect the quality of a design project and make it look amateurish.

Based on my experience, there are several widespread reasons behind pixelation issues in design:

• Poor resolution. When I work with low-resolution pics (like 72 DPI images) and enlarge it, some signs of blur and pixelation immediately become visible.
• Compression. It’s not recommended to save images in overly compressed formats like JPEG, as it may lead to pixelation.
• Excessive scaling. When scaling up a raster image (like PNG or JPG) in Photoshop or InDesign without considering its original resolution, it might be impossible to avoid an unwanted pixelation effect.
• Using a raster instead of a vector format. When I save logos or text in raster formats instead of vector formats like SVG or AI, it may be daunting to enlarge them later without any issues.
• Screenshots or poor-quality source images. When I use screenshots or images found online without considering resolution, I often have to deal with pixelation issues when preparing these pictures for printing or designing full-size layouts.

When working on all sorts of design projects, including poster designs, I strive to avoid pixelation, as it significantly degrades their overall quality. Whether I need to create a professional print ad, a site banner, or product packaging, I prioritize sharpness and clarity. I do not use blurry or pixelated images for my projects. Nonetheless, I would occasionally intentionally use the pixelation effect to achieve specific goals.

For instance, when I focus on privacy protection, pixelation is necessary. You might have seen this effect when watching news broadcasts and documentary movies. If a person does not want to disclose their identity, their face is pixelated. Together with my FixThePhoto colleagues, I often need to add this effect during the post-production stage when running social media campaigns for my clients. It becomes necessary if there are bystanders in the background, as we have to pixelate their faces to maintain compliance.

This effect is also used in artistic or retro design. When I was tasked with developing branding for a game studio, I needed to create designs consistent with an 8-bit aesthetic. We decided to design pixelated characters, icons, and backgrounds to recreate the effect of the first video games. We used pixelation to achieve the desired goals. You can use different types of pixel art software like Photoshop, Aseprite, Pixelmash, Krita, and others to recreate this effect.

Another use case of pixelation is censorship in media. It’s used to conceal nudity or offensive gestures in videos, allowing creators to publish their footage on various platforms. When editing a video for YouTube, I once had to choose the most suitable logo design size in pixels and make this element pixelated to avoid copyright issues.

Summing up, even though it’s better to avoid pixelation when working on design tasks, it has some specific use cases, especially when one needs to maintain compliance, safeguard other people’s privacy, or achieve a certain artistic effect.

When using Adobe InDesign for Mac, I often have to deal with pixelated or blurry pictures sent to me by my clients. For instance, it might be impossible for me to choose the best t-shirt design size in pixels and create a high-quality product if the source files are of low quality or are displayed as blurry. Thankfully, I can often fix such issues by choosing the right settings.

Working on all sorts of design tasks at FixThePhoto, we often get asked about the best pixel dimensions. If you need to create a business card, it’s essential to choose the most suitable business card design size in pixels when starting to work on your project. The same goes for flyers and billboards. It will allow you to get a perfectly sharp image without any sign of pixelation. We tested multiple options and decided to create this table with the most widely used formats so that you would be able to use it as a reference.

Tip: If you aren’t sure what resolution to choose, consult with your printing shop or check the information available on a provider’s website. Consulting a provider may be necessary to choose the right mug, t-shirt, billboard, or flyer design size in pixels.