For a lot of relationships and friendships, the actual record is not photographic. It is a message thread — years of it — and a photo book that leaves it out is missing the medium the relationship happened in.
Screenshots can be printed. They behave differently from photographs and there are two things to get right.
Screenshots print at their pixel size, and that is it
A photograph can be enlarged a little before it degrades. A screenshot cannot, because it is already exactly the pixels of a phone screen and there is no more detail underneath.
Practical effect: a screenshot printed at its natural size is crisp. Enlarged to a full page it is soft, and the text — which is the entire point — is what softens first.
So: print screenshots small. A quarter page, at most a third.
Which ones work
| Works | Does not |
|---|---|
| A short exchange, four or five messages | A whole day’s thread |
| A single message that mattered | A scroll of context |
| A voice note, screenshotted at its duration | Anything needing scrolling to make sense |
| A search result, a ticket, a booking | A long email |
| The first message either of you sent | Group chats with twenty names |
Four or five messages is the ceiling for legibility at a quarter page. Past that the text is too small to read and the reader stops trying.
Make it legible before sending
Three things that cost nothing:
1. Crop tightly. Cut the status bar, the keyboard, the navigation. Every pixel spent on chrome is a pixel not spent on the words.
2. Turn off dark mode before screenshotting. Dark mode prints as a large block of near- black ink — heavy, and harder to read on paper than on a screen. Light mode prints far better.
3. Zoom the text up first, then screenshot. Most phones have a text-size setting. Larger text means fewer messages per screenshot and considerably better legibility in print.
The better alternative, often
Set the words as type instead of printing the picture of them.
A message reproduced as a typeset quotation on a page is legible at any size, reads as deliberate, and does not carry a phone interface into a printed book. It loses the authenticity of the screenshot, which is sometimes the point and often not.
Send us the text and we set it. That is included in a designed product. Do you write the captions for me? →
Tickets, letters and physical things
A different problem with a different answer — those are photographed rather than screenshotted, and there is a guide for it. Which format suits tickets, letters and mixed material →
Frequently asked
Can you print WhatsApp conversations? Yes, as screenshots. Keep them to four or five messages and print them small — a screenshot cannot be enlarged.
Why do screenshots look blurry when printed large? A screenshot is exactly the pixels of a phone screen. There is no extra detail to enlarge into.
Should I screenshot in dark mode? No. Dark mode prints as a heavy block of near-black and is harder to read on paper. Switch to light mode first.
How much of a chat should go in? A short exchange, or a single message. A whole thread is unreadable at printable size.
Is there a better option than a screenshot? Often — send the text and have it set as type. Legible at any size, though it loses the look of the original.
Part of our guide to choosing photographs. See also: selfies in a printed book and which format suits tickets and letters.
Words and pictures: Photo magazines from ₹499 · Photo Diary from ₹699