Artwork sent through a chat app: check the file, not the app
A large share of print artwork arrives as an attachment in a conversation, and conversations are not built to move print files. Some paths preserve the original exactly and some re-encode it, and the difference is invisible in the chat window. The reliable move is not to learn each app's behaviour but to measure the file that landed, because that measurement holds regardless of how it travelled.
| First thing to read | pixel dimensions of the file as received |
|---|---|
| Second thing to read | the format — a design exported as PNG arriving as JPEG means re-encoding happened |
| Third thing to read | whether transparency survived, if the artwork had any |
| What none of these need | knowing which app or which setting was used |
| What settles it when re-encoding is suspected | the same file received a second way |
Why the format change is the strongest signal
Transparency and lossless compression are the two things a design export carries deliberately. If either is missing from what arrived, something in the path made a decision about the artwork — and whatever made that decision optimised for a screen and a data budget, not for a press.
The request that works
Asking for better quality invites a judgement the customer cannot make. Asking for a specific transport is a task they can complete.
- Ask for the file as a document or attachment rather than an image
- Ask for it by email, or through a link to the original file
- Ask for the source export if the design was made in an editor
When the received file is genuinely fine
Plenty of them are. A file that arrives at full pixel dimensions, in the format it was exported in, with its transparency intact, is the original and needs no further chase. Measuring first avoids sending the customer on an errand for a file you already have.
FAQ
- Which apps compress and which do not?
- The behaviour changes with app versions and with how the sender attached the file, so a list goes stale. The file itself does not.
- Does the preview quality in the chat tell me anything?
- No. Previews are generated for the conversation view and are unrelated to what the attachment contains.
- Is it worth asking for the original every time?
- Only when the measurement says something is missing. Asking unnecessarily costs the customer's patience for the times it is needed.