What photo resolution do you need for a 2×3 magnet?

A Craftigure magnet is 2×3 inches. That is a small print. You do not need a 50-megapixel studio file. You do need enough pixels that a crop still looks sharp at fridge distance.

Craftigure’s practical target: upload the highest-resolution original you have, ideally at least 1200×800 pixels (or 800×1200 for a tall portrait). Phone photos in good light usually clear that easily.

Why 1200×800, not “as big as possible”

Print sharpness is pixels across the finished magnet, after crop.

• At 300 pixels per inch, a 2×3 inch print wants about 600×900 pixels of the cropped area.
• 1200×800 on the full file gives room to crop to 2×3 (see how photos should be cropped) without landing on 400 pixels of face.

Bigger is better until the file is a screenshot. Then “bigger” is just a stretched blur.

What fails first

Chat and social downloads. WhatsApp, Messenger, and Instagram often save a smaller JPEG than the camera roll. If you can, ask for the original from the Photos app.

Screenshots of screenshots. Fine for identifying which photo you mean. Weak for print.

Heavy crops of a tiny original. If you pinch in on one face from a distant group shot, you may drop below useful pixels even if the original was huge.

Phone photos are usually enough

A typical smartphone still is thousands of pixels on the long edge. Taken in daylight, that is more than a 2×3 magnet needs. The failure mode is not “iPhone vs DSLR.” It is “original vs the copy that went through three apps.”

What Craftigure does with your file

You order a pack and upload during checkout or afterward from the private link. We print the photo you send. We do not upscale a blurry screenshot into a sharp portrait. If the file is soft, the magnet will be soft.

For the shape those pixels sit in, see 2×3 vs 2×2.

When you are ready to upload

Shop custom photo magnets. Keep the original on your phone until you upload — during checkout or from the confirmation link afterward.

Back to the Photo Magnet Guide.