Everything about what these magnets are physically made of, and how to send us photos that will look good at this size.
Size
2 inches by 2 inches. Square.
That size is deliberate. Smaller than 2 inches and faces stop being recognizable across a kitchen. Larger and a set of twenty stops fitting on a refrigerator door, and the whole point is the grid.
Larger sizes are available on bulk orders — contact us before ordering.
Materials
| Layer | What it is |
|---|---|
| Backing | 30mil flexible magnet stock |
| Photo stock, hand color-corrected before printing | |
| Finish | Matte laminate seal |
Why 30mil. Thinner stock (usually 20mil) curls at the corners within a year and loses grip. 30mil stays flat and holds.
Why matte, not gloss. Gloss photographs well and lives badly. Under kitchen lighting it throws glare from every angle, and it shows every fingerprint. Matte reads cleanly from across a room and wipes down with a damp cloth.
What the laminate does. It is the layer doing the protective work — sealing the print against moisture, kitchen grease, and handling, and shielding it from the UV that fades an unprotected photo. Keep a magnet out of direct sustained sunlight and it will hold its color for years.
Magnet strength
Strong enough to hold itself and a sheet of paper on a refrigerator door indefinitely. Not strong enough to hold a stack of mail. If you need a working utility magnet, this is the wrong product.
Will it stick to my refrigerator?
Most will. Some higher-end stainless steel refrigerators have a non-magnetic stainless outer layer, and nothing will stick to those. Test with any magnet you already own before ordering a large set.
Also works on: steel doors, filing cabinets, lockers, tool chests, whiteboards, cruise cabin doors, and most car body panels.
Photo requirements
Resolution
At 2 inches square you need roughly 600 x 600 pixels to print cleanly. Any phone from the last decade shoots several times that. Resolution is almost never the problem.
What actually causes problems
- Screenshots. Screenshotting a photo drops it to screen resolution. Send the original file.
- Text message photos. Messaging apps compress heavily. AirDrop, email, or upload the original.
- Social media downloads. Same compression problem, worse.
- Heavy filters. Filters that crush contrast or shift color leave us less to work with.
Composition
Faces should fill the frame. A wide shot of five people across a beach loses everyone at this size. Crop close before uploading, or tell us and we will crop it.
Old prints and scans
Photograph the print flat in indirect window light, or scan at 300dpi or higher. Do not use flash on a photograph — it blows out the center. Faded and yellowed prints usually come back better than the original.
Hard cases we are good at
Black dogs and cats, deep skin tones, dim reception halls, and church lighting all fool automatic exposure and automatic color correction. Those are exactly the images our hand-correction step exists for. Send them.
Care
Wipe with a damp cloth. Do not use solvents or abrasive cleaners on the laminate. Keep out of direct sustained sunlight.
Still not sure?
Send us the photo before you order. We will tell you honestly whether it will hold up at this size, and if it will not, we will usually tell you what would work better. Email [EMAIL].