5 Tips on How to Print the Best Quality Full Color Stickers

Everyone likes a little extra decoration and stickers do exactly that. In an era where everything is personalized stickers allow for almost anything to be given a little extra flair. It gives a person a chance to add a little extra something to their possessions, to show that the item is theirs.

This allows for even the most boring items to have a little extra decoration, be it personal mantras, favorite characters, or even family pets. A few added stickers can make anything a lot less boring, but not everyone makes the best stickers; however, with a few basic tips creating stickers that everyone loves is easy to accomplish.

Resolution Issues

A basic problem is that sometimes the picture looks a little blurry or pixelated. The problem is pretty simple: The original picture has the wrong resolution.

If you took the picture off the Internet, odds are it was saved at 72 pixels per inch; while this is more than enough for anything online, in printing it usually comes off as blurry as it well below the 300 recommended. It is thus better to start with a large picture and then shrink it down while increasing the resolution; this should reduce the blurriness.

If the picture starts out small, there is pretty much nothing you can; there just is not enough information to increase the picture to where it needs to be for a decent image.

If you are the one taking the picture, taking the pictures at the highest resolution possible is always in your best interest, and given the memory available on most devices you should be able to take as many pictures you would ever want. Just remember that when you crop it down the right size for whatever stickers you want that you try to keep it at 300 pixels per inch for best effect.

Composition 101

Another basic problem is that the stickers look a little boring: Everything is centered beautifully, the picture looks great, but everything just feels sort of boring. The problem is that the composition is off just a little bit; that beautiful centering is the actual problem. There are two concepts that can go a lot of way towards making less boring stickers: negative space and the Rule of Thirds.

The Rule of Thirds is pretty simple: Put a 3×3 grid over the area and put the main part of the image on any two of the intersections. By not putting the image dead center it becomes a little more aesthetically appealing and following the Rule of Thirds ensures that.

The other is to surround the central image with empty space; that empty space makes the picture much less crowded as well as draws attention to the image and makes it stand out. That is, by enforcing some sort of natural border, by isolating the image from its surroundings, the image is able to better shine.

If you have some sort of text, such as a slogan or saying, it can only benefit from being in its own space. While there are exceptions to both of these rules as there are times when you want the image to cover the entire sticker with the image, such as with flags or targets, these two rules should generally make for much more visually interesting stickers.

Have Fun

While it is easy enough to find some great ideas with what you can do with stickers, just do whatever you can to make the stickers fun.

This can mean streamers, fun fonts, or any number of frames; you want to have something more than just the picture and some text, after all. While the best stickers are sometimes the simplest, that does not mean that you need to keep them as presented; sometimes adding a little embellishment can actually add to the fun of the sticker, making it truly memorable.

A Great Printer

It is advisable to be working with a good printer for the best effects. While it is not hard to find affordable sticker printers, it is sometimes difficult to follow their advice for the best possible stickers. Thus, make sure that you follow the advice presented for the best possible results, and make sure that you print off some samples before getting serious; that should prevent any number of problems and allow you to fix any image issues such as pixelization and darkness before printing out your stickers.

Make it Seen

After you have made sure that the sticker’s resolution is fine and that composition works, that the image has been modified, and that you have a great printer, remember to make sure that the sticker is placed where you can see it. Ultimately, it makes little sense to put all of that work into a sticker and not see it, so make sure it is where you can see it and thus enjoy it.