How to · 3 min read · updated

How to make a big head cutout from a photo

The giant cardboard head from the stands, made from whatever photo you've got, as a pillow, a sticker or a magnet.

The short answer

Cut the head out of a photo, tilt it a little, give it a thick white border and an award ribbon under the chin, and print it on something cut to that shape. Phone photos aren't sharp enough to blow up as plain photos, so for the big sizes Big Head redraws the face in a Pop Art or comic style that stays crisp at 22 in.

Why a phone photo falls apart at pillow size

A print looks sharp at about 150 pixels per inch. A face that's 400 pixels wide in your photo can only go about 2.7 in wide before it starts to look soft. That's fine for a sticker. It's nowhere near a 22 in pillow.

Big Head does the maths for you. The plain Photo style is only offered when the face will print at 150 pixels per inch or better: stickers and magnets usually, the 10 in pillow only if the head is about 1,300 pixels wide, and the 16 and 22 in pillows practically never from a phone.

Pop Art and Comic stay sharp at any size

The way around it is to redraw the face instead of enlarging it. Pop Art rebuilds it as halftone dots and solid shadow shapes in two to four inks. The number of dots across the head is fixed, so a 300 pixel face and a 1,500 pixel face print the same. Comic cuts it into four flat tones with an ink line, like a newspaper strip, and can keep their real hair colour.

Both are drawn as shapes rather than pixels, so they print just as crisply at 22 in as at 3 in.

The details that make it look right

  • The border: a thick white edge, like the cardboard ones, and it's where the cut lands. On the 16 in pillow it's about 0.72 in wide.
  • The tilt: anywhere from 15 degrees one way to 15 the other. The default leans slightly, the way people hold them up.
  • The ribbon: up to 22 characters under the chin, like #1 DAD or EMPLOYEE OF THE MONTH, in red, blue, gold, black, pink or green. It always overlaps the head, so the whole thing cuts as one piece.
  • The crop: just the head, or head and shoulders.

Pick the photo

Any photo where the face is clear and not cut off. Pets work too. Your phone cuts the head out right there, and only that head image is uploaded, and only when you order. It's then checked by Google's AI: no famous people, nothing explicit.

For the same face on other things, Saint Mode puts it on a fanny pack with a halo and The Bachelor(ette) Collection puts it on a whole table of party merch.

Questions people ask

How big can a big head pillow be?

22 in on its longest side. The other sizes are 10 and 16 in, plus die-cut stickers and magnets at 3, 4 and 6 in.

Can I make a big head of my dog?

Yes. Big Head takes a person or a pet.

Why can't I pick the Photo style?

The face in your photo doesn't have enough pixels for that size. Pick a smaller product or switch to Pop Art or Comic, which stay sharp at any size.

Who writes the ribbon?

You do, or tap one of the suggestions. There's an optional AI helper that suggests three ribbons from a few words about the person; the photo is never sent to it.