Google Docs Printing/Drawing Blurry? Try This

Several users report that when they insert a new drawing or image into a Google Docs document, the drawing or image appears blurry. The issue is usually obviously with the image or drawing because the adjacent text or other text in the document display clearly.

If you are experiencing this issue and need to find a way around it, we have got you covered. In this article, we have provided comprehensive workarounds to fix the blurry drawing and image issue on Google Docs.

Why is My Google Printing/Drawing Blurry?

1. Issues With Google Drawings

As great as Google Docs is, there are some aspects that could still do with some improvements, and Google Drawings is one of them.

Google Drawings is basically a virtual canvas or board that allows you to draw objects using virtual tools on the application. It also allows you to import or paste drawings and images from other sources into the canvas.

However, on several occasions when you create an image or drawing directly on Google draw, the pixelation comes out wrong causing the drawing to be blurry.

The reason is that the Google Drawing application uses pixelation that does not automatically adjust to image size, device pixelation, and browser display. As a result, you would need to either change the image source or make manual adjustments to the drawing to integrate properly.

Fix – Insert A Google Drawing From Drive

To create a drawing using Google Drawing, you have the options to either create it directly in the Drawings app or import it from Google Drive.

But, as we stated, earlier, creating the drawing using Google Drawing causes pixelation issues, so you need to create the drawing in Google Drive and then import it into the Drawings platform.

There are 2 stages to doing this. Please follow the steps below to properly create a drawing on Google Drive and insert it into your document.

First, Create Drawing in Google Drive:

1. On your computer, open a document in Google Drive. It can be a blank document.

2. At the top left of the document page, click on File

3. Then click on New

4. Then select Drawing from the options

5. On the page that opens, you can use the editing tools to insert shapes, lines, text and so on

After creating the drawing in Google Drive, you can then insert it into the document you are working on using the steps below:

1. On the document, click the Insert tab at the top of the page

2. Select Drawing

3. This time, select From Drive, instead of New

4. Then navigate to find and click on the drawing you created in Drive

5. Then click on Select to insert the drawing into your document

When you do this, the inserted document is automatically linked to the original drawing in Drive.

After inserting the drawing from drive, the image should display properly and will no longer be blurred.

If you want to update such imported drawing:

1. Click on the drawing

2. At the top right, select Update

If you want to unlink such imported drawing:

1. Click on the drawing

2. At the top right, select Unlink

Fix 2 – Screenshot the Drawing and Insert it As an Image

Another way to work around the pixelation issues on Google Drawing is to insert the drawing as an uploaded image rather than having it created directly in the Drawing app.

The reason why this works is that, when you take a screenshot of the image, you are using the image settings of your device to capture the screen rather than the limited image and pixelation settings on Google Drawing.

To do this:

1. Create the drawing that you want to use in the document

2. Then take a screenshot of it using the screen capture mechanism on your device

3. This will save the image locally on your device

4. Then, on the Google document you’re working on, delete the drawing you created

5. Then, click Insert

6. Select Image instead of Drawing this time

7. Select Upload from Computer

8. Navigate to the screenshot you have taken on your PC

9. Click on it and then click on Open or Select

This will insert the drawing as an image on your document and eliminate the blurry image issue.

NOTE: Depending on the screenshot method you use, the entire screen on your PC may be captured and you would then have to use your computer’s photo editing tool to crop the photo leaving just the drawing. However, for best ways to capture just the drawing, please use the methods below:

Screenshot on Mac

On your Mac, press the key combination: Shift+Command+5 to open the Screenshot app

You will be presented with several tool s to choose for your screen capture

• The first icon captures the entire screen
• The second allows you to choose what window to capture
• The third option captures only a portion of the screen
• The other options are for screen recording
• Use the third option (rectangle with broken lines) to select the portion of the screen containing only the drawing

Screenshot On Windows PC

To take a screenshot on Windows PC, you can either use Snipping Tool or Snip and Sketch.

Fix 3 – Download as SVG

The second fix detailed above works just fine to eliminate the blurry Google Drawing image on your document. However, if you want even better resolution, you could download the drawing you created first as SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics), take a screenshot of it, and then upload it to your document.

The reason is that SVG stores images in XML text files, and have support for interactivity and animation. This makes it possible for the images to be increased or reduced to any size without any loss in image quality, making it ideal for creating drawings in Google.

To do this, please follow the steps below:

1. Create the drawing on the Google document

2. Still on the Drawing window, click on Actions

3. Clik on Download from the options

4. Select Scalable Vector Graphics (.svg)

5. Select the location where you want to save the drawing, then click Save

6. Delete the drawing on the Google doc page

7. Then, open the drawing file you saved as SVG on your PC. You can do this in another browser or in your local photo editor

8. Take a screenshot of the image using any of the methods provided in the previous fix

9. Then back on the Google doc page, click Insert

10. Select Image instead of Drawing this time

11. Select Upload from computer

12. Navigate to the screenshot you have taken

13. Click on it and the click on Open or Select

The image should now display clearly on your Google document.

2. Page Size is Small

Another reason why the drawing or image you create on Google comes out blurry may be because the size of the page is too small for the drawing. If the page size is small, the drawing or image would be compressed forcefully to fit the page, making it to come out blurry.

Fix – Increate Page Size

The first fix to try is to increase the page or paper size to see if it clears the blurry image issue. You can do that using the steps below.

1. On the document, click on File at the top left

2. Click on Page Setup from the options

3. At the Paper Size, click on the dropdown arrow

4. Select Tabloid or A3 from the options

5. If available, select a larger page size like 25” x a corresponding larger dimension

6. Make sure that at Apply To, you select Whole Document

After doing this, the image or drawing will automatically adjust to the new size of the page and the blurring should clear.

If you imported the image or drawing from Google Drive, you may need to update the image by clicking on the drawing and the selecting Update from the top right of the screen.

3. The Image Size Is Too Big

Although you can upload images up to 25,000p on Google Docs, the ideal image size is actually just about 2000p. If you upload any image with large dimensions, Google automatically compresses the image to fit the page.

Also, if the size of the image is more than 50mb, Google also tried to compress the size to fit the screen.

And, sometimes when this automatic compression occurs, it causes loss in image quality resulting in a blurred output. If you recall, this is what we tried to avoid by saving photos as SVG.

Fix – Compress Image Before Uploading

So, if you need to upload a photo or drawing with large dimensions or file size:

• You could compress the image using the local photo editor on your computer
• You could also use a free online photo editor to resize the size of the image
• After manually compressing the image, you can then upload it on your Google doc.

4. Issues With Text Wrapping

If the image or drawing you are trying to create or insert on Google has some text in it, the setting for the display may cause the entire image to become blurred.

There are about 5 standard settings for text display when creating an image or drawing that contains text on Google. They include:

• Inline with Text
• Warp Text
• Break Text
• Behind Text
• In Front of Text

You may choose any of these settings depending on the way you want the text to be displayed on the image or drawing. However, if you want the image to display properly and completely without blurring, you should choose the Wrap Text option.

Fix – Use Wrap Text to Display Text

When you use the Wrap Text option, the text automatically adjusts to fit the image size and dimension settings, ensuring that it does not come out blurred.

To do this:

1. Click on the image or drawing on Google doc

2. An Edit menu will appear underneath the image

3. Click on the More Options icon (3 vertical dots at the end of the displayed options)

4. Select All Image Options

5. From the options, click on the Text Wrapping dropdown

6. It is usually set to Inline with Text by default

7. Select Wrap Text from the options

The image will automatically adjust and the blurring should clear.

5. The Bummer of them all…Google Cloud Services is down

Well, it may not be you…it may be Google. You see, Google Docs is only part of a suite of productivity tools called Google Workspace. Other tools in the suite include Gmail, Calendar, Sheets (spreadsheets), Slides, Meets, and lots more. And, all of these components are hosted on a cloud platform called Google Cloud (cloud.google.com).

For more clarity, a cloud platform provides you with services on the internet as opposed to having them installed locally on your PC or mobile devices. These services are hosted on servers that are typically located at several, different parts of the world.

So, if the servers go down (or just the server hosting the particular application you are using); or if a relevant service on the server stops working, you will no longer be able to access or properly use the application it serves.

This is the case with Drawing on Google. If you are trying to create a drawing or image and it appears blurry, and you have tried all the fixes provided so far in this article, it is possible that the fault is from Google’s cloud services.

Fix – Wait For Google Servers to Correct Itself

In that case, all you can really do is just wait for Google to fix the issue. When a service on Google is down, they are almost certainly aware of it and are working to get it resolved. To be sure, you could check out Google Cloud on Twitter and see if there are any reports from users, or status reports from Google.

You could also check reports from service monitoring sites listed below:

• Down Inspector – On Down Inspector, you are able see feeds from Google Cloud social media account on current issues and reports on their service
• Down Detector – On Down Detector, you are able to see reports, queries, and complaints from other Google Cloud users, and from Google Cloud, too

6. Is it Possible You’ve Got a Bug?

In several cases, we have seen that the blurry image or drawing issue on Google is due to a bug on the Google Docs page, your browser, your current login session, and so on. When a bug occurs, it can affect an entire application or only a part of it.

In the case of Docs, you may be able to successfully create text and perform other functions, but the image creation function may stop working, causing the blurred drawing or image. To fix such bug, you would have to try the following fixes one after the other, and retry creating the drawing after performing each fix.

Fix – Restart Tab

The first thing to do when troubleshooting a bug on Google docs is to restart the tab you are working on. Like we stated earlier, the bug may just be affecting the page you’re on and a simple restart will resolve it.

1. To restart the tab, we recommend that you close the tab and then open it again.

2. You do not have to worry about losing your work because it is saved automatically as you go.

3. Using this restart method is more reliable for fixing the blurry image issue than using the Refresh function.

If restarting the tab does not work for you, we recommend closing the entire browser and opening it again. This will fix the problem if your browser has run into a glitch.

Restarting the browser usually clears issues with Google services; not just with Docs but even with the Google search engine.

If you’re worried about losing your open tabs, you can set the browser to continue where you left when you close and open it again. To do this:

On Chrome (Google, Brave, Edge):

1. Click on the Menu icon (3 dots or lines at the top right of the browser)

2. Select Settings from the menu that opens

3. On the Settings page, click On Startup

4. Select Continue Where You Left

On Safari:

1. Click the menu bar and select Safari.

2. From the options, click Preferences

3. When the menu opens, select the General tab.

4. Click on the Safari Opens with dropdown menu

5. Select All Windows From The Last Session.

Fix 2 – Start A New Doc

If the restart does not fix the problem, the next thing to try is to discard the document and start a new one from scratch.

You may copy the work from the existing document but without the image or drawing. But if you can afford to, we recommend that you start everything from scratch and make sure that you implement the recommendations provided earlier in this article like image resizing, text wrap, and so on.

Fix 3 – Log Out and Log In

Another possibility is that your current login session may have become corrupt which is making you to be unable to properly enjoy Google cloud services.

For many users, logging out of Google and then logging back in has resolved the blurry image or drawing problem for them.

To log out on your Google docs page:

1. Click on the first letter of your Google name at the top right of the page

2. It should display your name, email address, an option to manage your account or add another account, and then to sign out

3. Click on Sign Out to sign out of Google.

4. Then click on Sign In to sign back in

Fix 4 – Report the Problem

If the issue still persists, then you could report the problem to Google using the Twitter page or the web support page.

Fix 5 – Look in A Forum

Alternatively, you could get help from online communities like the Google Docs commnuity, Reddit, Quora, and so on.

7. The Drawing or Image is Actually Blurry

Another possibility to consider is that the image you are working with may actually be natively blurry. If that is the case, none of the fixes provided in this article will work. So, it’s important to confirm that the original image or drawing is actually clear before looking for a fix.

If you are copying the image from an online source or uploading from your PC, first open the image on your computer’s local photo editor to see the output. If the image is not clear and sharp, then you’re sure it won’t be clear and sharp on Google either.

Fix – Try Inserting Another Drawing or Image and See If The Quality Is Better

Once you confirm that the issue is with the original image, you simply need to get another image, test it locally on your PC, then insert it into your Google document to see if the blurry image issues is cleared.

8. How’s Your Internet Connection

You may already be aware of the fact that when your internet connection is slow, videos you are watching/streaming online could get blurry. This is because slow internet can only present low resolutions.

The same principle also applies to loading images online. If your internet connection is poor, the image will be loaded in low resolution, and will only get better when the connection improves.

Fix – Wait for Connection to Improve

Internet speeds fluctuate often. It may just be that the speed got poor as at the time you were uploading or creating the drawing or image. All you need to do is wait for the connection to improve, then the actual and clear resolution of the image or drawing will show.

Fix 2 – Fix Your Internet Connection

If the issue persists, then try fixing your internet connection:

• Try streaming on your PC and check the performance.
• If it is poor, turn off WIFI on your PC and then turn it back on and reconnect to your network
• If the issue persists, unplug the router from power supply, wait one minute and then plug it back in
• If you are using a wired connection, unplug the cable from your computer and plug it back in
• If your internet does not improve, then contact your ISP.