How To Make Prints Of Your Art In 3 Easy Steps

Original art is unique. They can take just a few hours to create or up to days, weeks, or even months. The time and effort put into an original artwork explain much of why the price of original art is what it is. A great option is for artists to create prints that they can sell at a much cheaper price than the original. 

You may be wondering how to go about making prints of your work. And that is why you have clicked on this article today. I’m going to outline three simple steps for you to follow in order to create prints of your artwork. This can be used for paintings, drawings, mixed media works, photography, and more.

Here are the three steps that we will go through in this article:

1. Scan or Photograph Your Artwork
2. Edit/Crop The Image
3. Print/Send To Be Printed

1. Scan or Photograph Your Artwork

In order to make prints of your art, you must have some type of digital file. This can be done in two main ways. First, you can scan your artwork on a scanner. Second, you can take a photograph of your art. Either will work just fine. Depending on the quality of either your scanner or your camera will determine the size of print that you can make.

Let’s talk about each of these separately for a moment.

How To Scan Your Art

There are many types of scanners out there. Some are attached to printers, but often the best quality scanners are those that are stand-alone scanners. When looking at a scanner, it is important to look into bit-depth which helps with colour correctness and scan resolution which deals with clarity and colour accuracy. Though there are other factors that can come into play such as the size of the scanning bed, supported media, and price, the clarity and colour accuracy are the most important in my opinion.

It is important to note that most scanners will at maximum go up to tabloid size, which is 11×17 inches. This means that if you often work in sizes that are larger than this, a scanner won’t be the best option for you to digitize your work. This is when you must use a camera if you want to do it yourself.

There are some printing shops that have large scanners that can do this work for you. They often charge a fee and from the few that I have seen around my city and neighbouring cities, it can get a little pricey. They do provide great quality scans that can then be turned into prints of very large sizes. Larger than what I can get with a 24-megapixel camera, however, the price has often turned me away. Do some research around your local area and see what options are available to you.

How To Photograph Your Art

Taking quality photographs of your artwork is key when you want to make prints. I will break this down into a few separate points.

Camera

The camera you use will make a difference. Though megapixels don’t determine everything when taking a photo, it will determine the overall resolution of your image. The higher the resolution, the larger the print that you can make.

I have found that with a 24-megapixel camera, I am able to get a great quality 24×36 inch print. Anything larger than that though, and the quality will go down.

With my iPhone 11 which has a 12-megapixel camera, I am able to get a great 18×24 inch print.

The main printing company that I use recommends at least 150 PPI in order to get a great quality print. With my 12-megapixel iPhone 11, the PPI for a 24×36 inch print is only 112. It would still be okay but not quite the quality I like for my customers.

Once you have your digital file/image, if you want to check what sizes would be good for a print along with the PPI, just follow this link. This is the one that I always use to check my photos before sending them to the print shop: https://www.pictorem.com/checkprintsize.html

What I want to say here is that you don’t need a professional or expensive camera in order to start making prints of your art. Cell phone cameras are becoming very competitive in terms of quality. As long as you aren’t planning on making huge prints of your art, your phone can do just fine to get you started.

Lighting

Lighting is almost as important as the camera that you are using. Even the best cameras won’t get a quality image if the lighting isn’t good. 

Here are some suggestions for lighting:

-take photos of your art before your varnish

-use as much natural light as possible. I always take photos of my work outside. I know that most people will say to go out on a cloudy day to get even light, but I have also used direct sunlight and have taken amazing photos of my artwork. Try yourself and see what works for you.

-When going outside to use natural light, try going out around midday or early afternoon. If you are out too late, then the light starts to turn warmer as sunset approaches.

See what works best for you where you live.

Tripod

I think using a tripod is very important in achieving the best quality photos that your camera can take. This will help stabilize the camera so it can get the clearest image. This also gives you the ability to really line it up so that you can perfectly centre your artwork. When taking the photo, make sure your artwork lines up with the edges and doesn’t create a trapezoid shape. Otherwise, when you crop your image, you will have to cut off a good amount of the actual artwork to get the background fully removed.

Easel / Something To Hold Your Artwork

I mainly paint on canvas or wood so I can use an easel to hold my artwork. If you use paper as your main surface then you might need to attach it to something to hold it straight for you.

When using an easel, I prop something on the front of it so that It can be parallel to the ground and straight for the camera. I then use the clamps to grab the sides of the canvas so there is nothing covering even the edges of the canvas.

2. Edit/Crop

After you have a digital copy of your artwork, whether that be from a scanner or a camera, there is a little bit of editing you must do. Take the digital file and put it into whatever editing program you use. This can be done on a cell phone, tablet, your computer.

Sometimes even with the best scanner or camera, the colour might need just a little correction to make it more like the actual artwork. This is where you can make any of those adjustments.

Cropping your digital file is also very important. First, you need to make sure you crop anything out so it is just the artwork and no background. It is also important to determine the size of print you want to make before cropping. Then when you crop the image, you can set the cropping tool to make the image the proper size. For example, I make a lot of 24×36 inch prints. When I go to crop the image, I set my cropping tool to that size so that I know the file that I send to the printer will fit perfectly. If you don’t, part of the image may get cut off, or there may be some white space left.

3. Print Copies Yourself Or Send To A Professional Printer

There are two ways that you can produce the prints of your artwork. You can either print them yourself with your own printer, or you can have a printing company do it for you.

Print The Artwork Yourself

If you want to print things yourself, then you obviously have to have your own printer. Choosing a quality printer that can make good prints can be tricky. Here are some things to consider if you are thinking of purchasing your own printer for art prints:

1. How much money am I willing to spend?

-Professional printers can be very expensive.

2. What sizes of art prints do I want to make?

-Some printers will only go up to a certain size. You may want to print larger prints.

3. How much is the paper going to cost to make the prints?

-There are many types of papers you can get. How much will that cost?

4. How many prints can you make per ink refill?

-Make sure it is worth it for your printer.

5. What kind of prints do I want to make?

-If you are wanting to do canvas prints, a regular printer won’t be enough.

I’m not saying that purchasing your own printer is a bad choice. It can be a good investment when done correctly. However, I think that using a professional printer is also a good choice. 

Have A Company Make The Prints

Sending your prints to be made by a professional printer is a great option when wanting to make prints of your work. This allows you to not have to invest in a printer and all of the materials it takes to make art prints at home.

If you are sending your artwork to be printed by a professional printer, you will basically need to send them the digital file of your work and let them know what you want to be printed. Each company has their own system but many have online options for ordering. You will just need to follow their prompts to create orders. I have used some local professional printers before and with them, I have just put the files I want to use on a USB stick and taken it into the store to be used. 

You will have to do some research to find out which company you want to use. You may find someone local who does good work, or you may have to look online.

The company that I mainly use is The Giclée Factory. They are based in Quebec City, Canada, and do amazing work for amazing prices. They will also drop-ship the prints that they make for me right to the customer so I don’t even have to worry about the packaging and shipping. This makes my life much easier. For greeting cards and some small prints that I use for markets, I will use a local printer. This allows me to get cards and prints more quickly if needed.

Making prints of your artwork will open you up to a new range of customers who aren’t able to afford original artwork but still appreciate your work. I hope these three steps have helped you understand how to start making prints of your art. 

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