Fonts

We currently have over 80,000 fonts in our library. We can select fonts for your job or you can tell us what fonts you'd prefer to use. You may also view various fonts at sites like these and let us know what you like. If we have the font, you may use it free of charge for your job. If it is a font that we do not have, we can purchase it for you and give you the font files for your future use. Of course we are always happy to use our own experience and suggest a font that will showcase your image, wording, and layout for your materials.

www.1001fonts.com
www.agfafonts.com
www.itcfonts.com

Images

Looking for a specific image for your project? Here are a few sites which sell stock photography. We usually recommend that you choose the photos you want and let us know the image numbers. We will research the images, let you know what size you need based on the dpi size, and make sure that you have the rights to use the photo for your specific purpose. Each image has licensing specific to your job.

www.istockphoto.com
www.dreamstime.com
www.gettyimages.com
www.fotosearch.com
www.corbis.com

Enlarging Images: Clients often enlarge an image only to find it becomes blurry, jagged or pixilated. These are all classic cases of image distortion. Photos and images are made up of dots. The dots look fine until you enlarge the image which basically spreads the dots apart thus giving you less "dots per inch". This makes the lines look thinner and the curves become blocky and grainy. What was once a 300 dpi (dots per inch) image, is now 150 dpi, or in some cases much lower. These distortions make achieving a professional printed product very difficult. Big Fish DPI will not print your project if it does not meet our standards, unless you offer special written consent.

Reducing Images: An image that is larger than what you need isn't a bad thing because we can always resize it. However, once you've made an image smaller and saved it, you can't go back to the larger size so resave the file under a different name. Making an image smaller will not reduce your quality because you're squeezing the dots together thus avoiding image distortion. If you plan to use a stock image to do a variety of printing materials, you are better off to purchase the bigger image so you have more versatility with your image size.

Using Web Images: All images off webpages are 72 dpi. You cannot copy them and use them for printed material even if it's your website. The resulting printed image will be so blocky the image could be unrecognizable. It is best to download a high res photo from a stock photography site or use your own photos.

Using Your Own Photos: Digital cameras have quality settings on them. Most people use the lowest setting so that you can fit more photos on your memory card. But sometimes when you go to use that photo in printed material, the photo is low quality. If you plan to take photos for printed material, take the time to make sure your camera is set to take photos on the highest quality setting.