Stamp PNG: size, resolution and background
A stamp PNG is the most portable form of a stamp because every program opens it and the format carries real transparency, and the two things that decide whether it works on your document are its resolution and whether it was built with a background.
Stamp PNG: size, resolution and background templates, ready to edit
Open the stamp maker with any of these
Every preview on this page carries a faint Estamplab watermark. Your own download does not: the editor renders your stamp again, clean, as a transparent PNG, an SVG or a PDF. See the full template library.
PNG is the right default for a stamp and the wrong choice for exactly one job. It carries genuine transparency, it does not soften lettering the way JPEG compression does, and nothing you are likely to open it in will refuse it. What it cannot do is scale: a PNG is a fixed grid of pixels, so a file made for the screen falls apart when someone enlarges it for print. That is the whole reason this page exists, because most stamp PNG downloads are a few hundred pixels across and turn to mush the first time anybody zooms in.
What you get
- The stamp PNG here is rendered at 2400 pixels square, which is over 1000 DPI at the size of a real stamp, so it stays sharp when enlarged or printed.
- It is tagged with its true physical size, so an editor that reads the tag places it at stamp size rather than filling the page.
- A second copy at insert size comes with it, for the editors that ignore that tag and assume 96 DPI.
- Transparent by default, with a white background version offered separately for slides, email signatures and the print workflows that want one.
- Built from vector artwork rather than cut out of a photograph, so the edges are clean instead of carrying the grey fringe a cut out leaves.
- If you need it to scale without limit, the SVG in the same download is the file for that, and the PDF is the one a print shop will ask for.
How to make it
- Open the stamp maker and pick a shape, or start from a template.
- Type your wording, then set the colour, border and size.
- Add the date, time, serial number or logo, and position each one.
- Preview it live, then download. Designing and previewing are free.
Questions
What resolution should a stamp PNG be?
High enough that nobody can enlarge it into pixels. The exports here are 2400 pixels square, which is well over 1000 DPI at the size of a physical stamp, so the same file is fine on a screen and on a printed page. A stamp PNG of a few hundred pixels is only safe if it will never be zoomed or printed.
Should my stamp PNG be transparent or on a white background?
Transparent for anything you place on a document, so the text underneath still reads through the gaps in the seal. White is useful for slides, email signatures and some print workflows that handle transparency badly. Both come out of the same design here, so you do not have to choose once and for all.
Is there a free stamp PNG download?
Designing and previewing are free with no account and no watermark over the preview. The file itself is $1.50 for a single image format or $3.00 for every format zipped, paid once.
PNG, SVG or JPG for a stamp?
PNG for placing on documents, because it is universally supported and transparent. SVG when it has to scale without limit, such as artwork going to a sign maker or a die cutter. JPG only when something refuses the other two, because it cannot hold transparency and will give you a white box.
Why does my stamp PNG look blurry?
It was almost certainly exported small and then enlarged. A PNG has a fixed number of pixels and enlarging invents the rest. Download the full resolution copy and place that instead, or use the SVG if the size is going to change a lot.
Estamplab is a design tool. This page describes common commercial practice rather than giving legal, tax or financial advice, and practice changes. Where a specific document matters, check the requirement with the body receiving it. Only produce a mark your own organisation or your own credentials are entitled to use.