A personalised photo gift is only as good as the photo. We can print a sharp, well-lit picture beautifully on a mug, a print, a canvas or a blanket. We cannot rescue a blurred one. This is a plain guide to what happens after you order, and to choosing a photo that will look as good on the shelf as it does on your phone.
In short:
- Use the original photo from your phone or camera, taken in daylight, with the face sharp.
- One clear face suits the Pet Photo Mug or the Pet Photo Ceramic Christmas Ornament; a larger scene suits the Personalised Photo Print with Caption or the Personalised Family Photo Stretched Canvas with Caption.
- We do not send proofs, so check the photo and every word before you pay.
What happens after you press order
Every item is made when you order it. Nothing sits in a warehouse waiting for a name.
When you upload a photo and type the personalisation on a product page, both are attached to your order. We lay out the artwork to the design you saw on the page: the photo cropped to the frame and the name or caption set in our typefaces. That artwork goes to one of our UK print partners within about 10 minutes of payment. They print it onto the mug, paper, canvas or fleece and send it by a tracked service (usually Royal Mail or Evri, chosen by the print partner), and we email you a tracking link when it is dispatched.
Delivery times are on our Delivery page. Damaged or misprinted? Your right to a free reprint or refund, made easy.
Why the file matters more than the product
Every photo product page checks the photo when you upload it and warns you if the file is too small to print well. That check catches the worst cases, but a photo can pass it and still disappoint, because size is only one part of a good print. Light, focus and framing matter just as much, and a phone screen hides all three.
The rest of this guide is about the things the upload check cannot see.
Use the original file
Send the photo straight from your phone or camera, not a screenshot, and not a picture that has been through a messaging app. WhatsApp, Messenger and other social apps can shrink and compress photos when they send them, and each pass throws away detail. If a friend has the photo, ask them to send it as a file or a document, or through a cloud link, rather than as a normal message.
As a rough guide, a mug or an ornament needs a photo of at least 1,000 pixels on the short side. A 12 x 16 in print or a canvas is better with 2,000 or more. Each product page states its own minimum. A photo taken on a phone made in the last few years will have plenty, as long as it has not been shrunk on the way to you.
Light and focus
Daylight is the friend of every photo gift. Take the picture near a window or outdoors on an overcast day, without flash, which flattens faces and gives dogs green eyes. Check that the eyes are sharp by zooming in on your phone before you upload; if they are soft at that size, they will be soft on the print.
Photos taken indoors at night tend to be grainy in a way that the screen hides and the print does not.
Framing and cropping
Think about the shape of the product before you choose the picture.
- Photo ornaments crop the picture to a circle. A square-ish photo with the face near the centre works best. A group shot with people at the edges loses them.
- Photo mugs print the picture in a circle, twice around the mug, so leave a little space around the subject rather than filling every edge.
- Prints and canvases are upright rectangles, so a portrait photo fills them best. Give the subject room to breathe; the caption print adds a cream border around it.
- Blankets print the photo large across the front, so the background shows as much as the subject. A simple background is kinder than a busy one.
If the photo has several people or pets in it, a 12 x 16 in print or a canvas shows them properly. An ornament is best with one face.
Filters, colour and paper
Skip the filters. A heavy filter that looks moody on a screen can print as a murky cast. Send the natural version and let the product do the work.
Expect a little difference between the screen and the print. Screens glow; paper does not. Our prints are on 220gsm smooth matte fine-art paper, which gives a soft, even finish and softens harsh highlights. Canvas has a slight texture that suits portraits and landscapes and is less kind to small text or fine detail. Mugs and ceramic ornaments are glossy and bright. None of these is better; they are different, and it helps to know which you are getting.
Which product suits which photo
A single clear face, whether a baby, a dog or a grandparent, suits a photo mug such as the Pet Photo Mug, or a photo ornament such as the Pet Photo Ceramic Christmas Ornament, where the face is the whole design.
A holiday, wedding or family photo suits the Personalised Photo Print with Caption, which prints it inside a cream border with a thin keyline, with the caption in serif beneath. It comes in 12 x 16 in (30.5 x 40.6 cm) or 8 x 12 in (20.3 x 30.5 cm), supplied unframed. It is slightly larger than 30 x 40 cm (or 20 x 30 cm), so choose a 12 x 16 in (or 8 x 12 in) frame.
The photo you keep coming back to, if it is sharp and well lit, deserves the Personalised Family Photo Stretched Canvas with Caption. It is printed on satin-finish canvas, 12 x 16 in (30.5 x 40.6 cm), with the caption on a cream band along the base. It is a stretched canvas with no outer frame. It arrives with hanging fixings on the back, ready to hang. This is the product that rewards a high-resolution original above all, and punishes a screenshot.
For a soft, usable gift, the Pet Photo Fleece Blanket and its baby counterpart, the Baby Photo Fleece Blanket, print the photo across the front of the fleece. Choose a photo with a simple background.
The photo prints and canvases are in our Personalised Wall Art collection, and the pet photo pieces are in For Pet Parents.
If you are not sure
Upload the best version you have. If it is too small to print well, the product page will warn you before you add it to your basket. We do not send proofs, and orders go to our printer within about 10 minutes of payment, so check the photo and every word before you pay. If you still have doubts about a photo, choose a different one, or a smaller product.
One honest note. Your right to a free reprint or refund covers items that arrive damaged, faulty or misprinted. It does not cover a photo that was low resolution, cropped or blurred when you uploaded it and we warned you at the time, so the five minutes spent choosing the file are the best five minutes of the whole gift. Full details are on our Returns page.
More gift guides
- Milestone birthday gifts from an 18th to a 90th pairs a name and date of birth, or a photo and a caption, with a mug or a print.
- When a friend loses a dog or cat, Pet memorial gifts: how to choose something that helps covers what to send, when to send it and what to write.
- Gifts for cat mums and cat dads runs from a mug with the cat's name to a photo ornament that shows the cat itself.