Sometimes when looking at the Travel Book preview it is difficult to distinguish whether or not an image is lower in resolution or a blurry image. This article is meant to help you tell the difference and provide some guidance on how to improve your images!

Low resolution

In the preview, we provide warnings for low-resolution photos for photos that have less than 800 pixels, but it is good to look at these images on a bigger screen, as photos above this resolution could still be considered not optimal. 

Some programs, and also social media platforms compress photos when you edit or send them. Or, if the photos were taken with an older smartphone or if they are zoomed in, this can also have an effect on the quality of your photos.

We recommend uploading photos with a resolution of 3500 pixels (in height or width) to your trip, as those are the most optimal for printing. You can check the resolution of your original images by opening the image on your phone and clicking 'details' -> 'show info'.

We advise you not to use photos you receive through apps that automatically reduce photo quality (e.g. WhatsApp or other social media platforms). If you want to add photos to your trip that you received from your friends or family, you can for example choose to share files via Airdrop or email, as these platforms don't reduce the resolution as much as when you share files through social platforms.

How do I find the resolution for my photo?

Being able to locate this information is just as important as the image itself. There are many ways to find the resolution:

• iOS: If you have an iOS device, go to your photo album and tap on the image. Now slide up on the image, and here you will see the resolution- for example 3500X4032
• Android: If you are using an Android device, open your photo gallery and tap on the image. Then, tap on the  ℹ️ info icon at the bottom center of the screen. Here you will find the resolution- for example 3060X4080

Blurry images

Sometimes when looking at images on a smaller screen it can be difficult to see if they are clear or blurry, we recommend going to Polarsteps.com to view your images on a bigger screen. You can look at the images in two different ways:

• The trip itself: Go to the trip and tap on a step, then you can tap on the image to make it bigger.
• The Travel Book preview: you can see how the images will appear in the Travel Book by generating your Travel Book.

Once you have access one of the above options, it's important to look at different aspects of your photo.  For example, have a look at faces: are they clear, can you make out the different features? What if you zoom in on them, are they still clear? If you have a photo of a tree, can you see the leaves or the flowers? Or is it difficult to make these out?

For example, looking at this photo on a small screen you can see that at first glance it looks okay:

But if you enlarge the image then you can see that it is rather blurry, the grass in the front is not sharp: 

This means if this image was on a full page, it would appear very blurry when printed. 

Kind reminder: Even if the picture is a little blurry or lower in resolution, that does not mean that you cannot include it in your Travel Book.  Perhaps just add it to a page with some other images, so you still have that lovely moment captured and you can remember all of the memories tied to the photo.