“Too low resolution” means your logo is a pixel image that does not contain enough detail to be printed at the size required. It cannot be fixed by making the file bigger, and no software can add detail that was never captured.
You have three realistic options: find the original vector artwork, have the logo redrawn as vector artwork, or reduce the size it is printed at. Only the first two solve the problem permanently.
What has actually happened
Your logo is stored as a grid of coloured dots. Print needs roughly 300 of those dots per inch for something viewed close up, like a leaflet or a business card. Large-format work seen from further away — a banner, a van, a fascia sign — can usually manage with around 150.
So a logo 1,000 pixels wide is comfortable at about 85mm on a leaflet, and hopeless at 1,200mm on the side of a van. Your printer is not being awkward. They are telling you the job will look bad and they would rather say so now than after it is produced.
Your options, honestly assessed
Find the original artwork
Ask whoever designed the logo for the vector files — EPS, AI or PDF. If a designer, agency or printer made it, they may still have it. This costs nothing but a few emails and is always worth trying first.
Have it redrawn as vector
The permanent fix. Drawn by hand from whatever you have, so it works at any size from an embroidered polo to a motorway sign, and it never happens again.
Print it smaller
If the job allows it, reducing the printed size may bring it within tolerance. It solves today’s problem and none of tomorrow’s, and it means the logo appears smaller than you wanted.
Run it through an auto-tracer
Automatic vectorisers follow the compression noise in your original, so edges come out wavy and lettering comes out as approximations. Fine for simple flat shapes, poor for anything with type or detail.
What not to bother with
Enlarging the image first. Scaling a pixel image up adds size but no detail. Whatever tool you use, the information is not there to recover.
Sending a bigger screenshot. A screenshot is limited by the resolution of your screen, which is far lower than print needs. It also captures whatever compression the original had, and adds a little of its own.
Asking for it to be printed anyway. Some suppliers will, if you sign it off. You then own the result, and a soft logo on a van you are paying thousands to wrap is an expensive way to save a small amount.
Before you reply to your printer
Run the file through our free checker. It works entirely inside your own browser, nothing is uploaded, and it will tell you exactly what state the artwork is in and the largest size it can safely be produced at — which is a much easier thing to send your supplier than a guess.
Making sure it does not happen again
The reason this keeps catching businesses out is that a logo usually only exists in whatever format it was last sent in. Somebody emails a PNG for a website, that PNG becomes the copy everyone uses, and three years later it is the only version anyone can find.
A properly organised logo suite avoids this permanently. That means vector master artwork, plus exports at the sizes you actually use, plus versions for dark backgrounds and single-colour printing, and a short sheet telling any supplier which file to use for what. It is not a large piece of work, and it is the difference between this being a recurring emergency and a solved problem.
And while you are here: if your logo is being turned down by suppliers, it is often worth asking whether it is still the right logo. A rejection is frequently the first outside signal that a business has outgrown the identity it started with.
Common questions
How do I know how big my logo can be printed?
Divide the pixel width by 300 to get a safe size in inches for close-up print, or by 150 for large-format work viewed from a distance. Our free file checker does this automatically and compares it against real uses like business cards, banners and van panels.
The printer offered to fix it for me. Should I let them?
Many will, and for a simple mark it can be the quickest route. Ask two things: whether they are redrawing it or auto-tracing it, and whether you will be given the resulting vector files to keep. If the answer to the second is no, you will be back in the same position with the next supplier.
Can AI fix a low resolution logo?
AI upscaling tools invent plausible detail rather than recovering real detail, which is acceptable for photographs and unreliable for logos, where precise edges and exact letterforms are the entire point. AI vectorisers have the same limitation as any auto-tracer.
What if I do not have any usable file at all?
A photograph of the old van, a business card, or an image from your website is enough to work from. The quality of the source affects how long redrawing takes, not whether it is possible.