Printing art can be overwhelming but, for an artist, mastering the printing process is essential. Paul Shipper is known for his iconic movie posters and has spent years creating quality, large-format prints. “Creating a print that matches the color, quality of line, and texture used in the original artwork is very important for me to capture in a fine art print,” Paul says. “I want the art print to encapsulate the vibrancy, thought, and consideration that went into the original illustration as closely as possible — so much so that whoever looks at it may find themselves wondering if it is actually the original piece.”
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Paul Shipper’s movie poster style artwork highlights the importance of printing best practices. Image source: Paul Shipper.
Fortunately, there are ways to ensure your printed art looks as close to the original as possible. Using the right creative program is essential. “I use Adobe Photoshop as part of my daily workflow and use it to send all my artwork to print,” says Paul. “It has all the necessary options and makes printing super easy work.”
Whether you’re printing from your desktop in Photoshop or a tablet in Adobe Sketch, understanding the following elements and how they impact printing will help you put your best art forward.
Pixels are definitely something you’ve heard of, and it’s likely you’re intimately familiar with them. The name pixel comes from the term “picture element” (picture + element = pixel). They’re the smallest unit on a grid depicting an image, and they can be round or square. Think of them like the atoms of pictures. Pixels are measured by the number of pixels per inch, or ppi. The more pixels per inch, the sharper your image will appear. Conversely, the fewer pixels per inch, the more likely you are to encounter pixelation — when you can see the edge of each pixel.
This is the same raster image at different zoom levels. Notice how the pixels become more visible. Image source: Renée di Cherri.
Some important things to remember about pixels: You can’t really modify the number of pixels in an image. You can attempt to resample an image, but this isn’t recommended and doesn’t always yield the best results. You can resize an image, which means changing the actual size of each pixel, but thinking of pixel needs from the beginning will yield the best results. Typically, an application will ask what size of canvas or artboard you want to create when you begin working on a project, and you can specify the size in pixels or inches.
Also keep in mind that the required ppi for digital images and printing are vastly different. Digital images found on the internet typically have around 72 ppi. This is completely insufficient for printing an enlarged image and part of the reason why those internet pictures you printed to hang on your wall in the fifth grade were either blurry or small.
When discussing printing, resolution (or image resolution) means the number of pixels per square inch of printed paper. Standard resolution for a printed image is 300 ppi. This means that when you’re printing a 4×6, you should have 1200×1800 pixels.
Resolution has great bearing on whether or not your print turns out looking professional. Again, this is something to be cognizant of when starting a new project. For example, if you know that the end result needs to be printed poster size, make sure you have allowed for enough pixels in your artboard to enlarge the image without losing quality. If you’re not certain, it’s best to err on the side of more pixels.
Dots per inch, or dpi, is similar to pixels, but indicates the number of ink dots printed per inch. This number is the printer resolution and is not directly associated with your image, but instead with the printer itself. “I send all art to the printer at 300 dpi,” Paul says. The higher the dpi, the smoother and better the image quality will be. The printer or printing service you use will usually specify the resolution they need to create quality prints, but 300 dpi is standard.
How pixels, resolution, and dpi affect your prints can vary from printer to printer. “Find yourself a good print partner,” Paul says. “Or, if you have your own print setup, a partner who understands what you want to create and can advise you.” Having a relationship with a print partner can help create prints that reflect the original intention of your art.
Raster images are bitmap images — images made up of pixels. You know them by names such as tiff, jpeg, or gif. Photographs are a prime example of a raster image. Because they are made of pixels, you have to be careful that the file you want to print is saved at a high enough resolution. They’re the high-maintenance friend of image files. You have to be more careful about specifications when printing them, but they are essential for photographs and still widely standard for web publishing.
This vector image maintains crisp edges at different zoom levels. Image source: Renée di Cherri.
Vector images originate in math. There are different types of math going on behind the scenes for all vectors — like points, shapes, and strokes. Each vector is actually made up of invisible points on a grid. The points are connected by mathematical equations. This means as you scale a vector up in size, the math behind the scenes keeps everything crisp and in the right proportions. For this reason, vectors are most commonly used for logos, type, font, clipart, etc. They’re much more flexible than their pixelated counterpart and can be easily scaled, which makes them great for any project that will be printed at a large scale.
The sizes you can print an image or artwork are endless, as long as you have the right resolution. Using Adobe Sketch or Adobe Draw, you can even create custom canvases directly from your tablet or smartphone. The Creative Cloud apps have the most common sizes — like poster, postcard, A4, and photo print — available to choose when you open a new document or canvas.
When choosing a print size, it helps to choose one similar to the original. “Most of my final work is sized at 27×40,” says Paul. “So, when I do fine art prints of my work they are usually printed at 16×24 and 24×36, which echo the original dimensions perfectly.” You can also create a custom canvas size.
To create your own custom preset in Sketch or Draw, tap on this plus button in your Project Organizer (it should look the same in both apps).
That will open a pop-up window with common presets and a “New Format” option to create a custom-sized canvas.
A dialog box, requiring the details of your new canvas size, will pop up. Give the new format a name, such as “Instagram Posts,” so you can remember what this preset is for, then choose from pixels, inches, centimeters, or millimeters to measure the width and height of the canvas.
You’ll see your chosen resolution, and the maximum layers available to you in Sketch and Draw with that canvas size. A smaller total canvas size (and/or lower ppi) will allow more layers to be created, while a larger canvas (and/or higher ppi) will allow fewer layers. These numbers scale to keep app performance in tip-top shape and prevent crashes. Once you’ve saved the format, it will be available to you as a canvas option each time you open Sketch or Draw.
Color, and how you use it when printing, is a vast and nuanced subject. Here are the basics to get you started.
One of the main concerns when printing is maintaining color integrity. In order to have precise, consistent color management, it helps to understand color profiles. A color profile is the data that defines color within a certain space (like a program or printer). Programs typically have preset color profiles, but you can adjust them if necessary. The main color profiles are RGB and CMYK.
RGB stands for red, green, and blue. It represents the colors emitted by screens, making it the optimal choice when designing digital materials. Desktop printers have internal software that converts RGB data to CYMK, so it’s best to keep an RGB profile when printing to this kind of printer.
CYMK — cyan, yellow, magenta, and key (black) — is the general standard for printing. The colors are mixed during the printing process, and CYMK has the most accuracy for projects with a lot of color. When printing artwork with more than one color for commercial production, a separate masterplate must be printed for each color. You can also customize how these plates are printed in Photoshop.
Managing these color profiles for printing and document transfer is another important step to maintaining color integrity. Paul relies heavily on Photoshop for color management. “We found that allowing Photoshop to handle color works best for print output,” he says. “Just make sure you have the specific paper preset loaded.” You can preview how what you’re printing will look for each individual device. Learn more about color management in Photoshop.
Much of getting a quality print relies on knowing how each of these elements — pixels, dpi, resolution, file type, print size, and color — will affect your art from the beginning and throughout the process. With this understanding, your prints will not only look more professional, but will also more effectively communicate the intent of your original art.
I thought I would share a few tips on how to print art downloadable printables so that they look fantastic in your home. After you figure out the first step, which is how to download the file(s), the next step is how to print art printables.....
I'm sure you've already noticed that the colors on your screen look different than what comes out of your printer. This difference occurs as screen color is created with light and printouts are created with ink, there's no way around this fact (see tip #3 for more details).
In this article, I've included five tips you can use to help your printouts look their beautiful best. Here's how to print a picture so it looks great!
Tip #1- Invest in a good printer
The internet today has a wonderful selection of printables for a wide variety of purposes. If you're planning on using a lot of printables, you'll save yourself a ton of frustration if you invest in a good, reliable printer.
I currently have a color laser printer and found the quality to be great.
My printer is a brother Brother MFC-9330CDW All-in-One Color Laser Printer
I like the fact that the ink doesn't smudge if it gets moist, plus laser printers don't have the problem of clogged inkjets. I use my printer for a variety of tasks from printing shipping labels to test printing my artwork. The downside is that laser printers and toner cartridges are generally more expensive. (Note, the art prints I sell in my store are done through a professional printer and are archival quality using acid-free inks and paper)
Inside a laser printer is a laser beam that scans back and forth across a drum in order to build up a pattern of static electricity. This static electricity selectively attracts powdered ink called ‘toner’ that is transferred to the page. In a color laser printer, there is a separate toner for each color (CMYK) which are applied separately then heat 'fuse' to the paper.
Basically, an inkjet printer places extremely small droplets of ink onto the paper to create the image. These ink dots are so tiny that they’re nearly impossible to see with the naked eye. It should be noted that the various printer manufacturers use different methods for getting these dots onto the page.
I've had some great inkjet printers and some truly horrible ones. The quality can be uneven. With inkjets printers, it's all about the inkjet printhead. Some have the print-head as part of the printer and some come with the print-head as part of the replacement ink cartridge.
The advantage of having the print-head with the replacement ink cartridge is that if it gets clogged you can just replace the cartridge and you're good to go. These printers are generally cheaper, but the replacement cartridges are way more expensive.
If the print-head is included in the printer, then the printer is generally more expensive but the replacement ink cartridges are much cheaper. The problem with this type of printer is that if the inkjets become clogged you may not be able to get them unclogged in which case the printer will no longer be any good. I've had both types of inkjet printers...which is why I now use a laser printer lol.
Regardless of which printer you choose to print with at home, it's best to do a bit of research and read the reviews. It's also wise to make sure you check the price of replacement cartridges before purchasing the printer.
Be sure to know in advance the quality of prints you'd like to have in the end, as this will reflect how much you're willing to pay for a printer. If' you're a photographer and need better quality printouts, some of the more expensive printers that offer archival inks and accompanying acid-free paper would be suitable. For a person looking to just do some casual printing color fastness and longevity is probably not an issue, it's more about the price.
Tip #2 - Choose the right paper for the job
Paper can make a big difference. Be sure to buy the paper that suits your printer, i.e. inkjet paper for inkjets and laser paper for laser printers. Some printer manufacturers also have their own lines of paper (ex. HP, Epson, Canon ) If possible use the type of paper the manufacturer suggests for the type of printing you want to do.
Take note of the paper thickness and sheen (you'll also need this information for tip #3 printer settings) The end use of your printable will dictate which of these two variables to choose. For example, you'll want thicker paper with a satin sheen for something like a greeting card. A thinner paper with matte sheen (something you can write on) would be best for something like a calendar printable page. For photos, my preference would be thick paper with a glossy sheen.
For the sake of our wall art printables, you'll want to use the highest quality paper to get the best results.
The paper and ink quality you choose will also determine how long the page you've printed stays looking good. If the inks your printer uses aren't 'archival' and the paper isn't 'acid-free' whatever you print will tend to fade and color shift over time. As mentioned above in Tip #1 archival inks and acid-free papers tend to be quite expensive so you'll need to assess that, although if you decide to go with a cheaper printer and materials you can always reprint the artwork if it fades.
I've used many different types of papers, a great all-purpose glossy paper for laser printers is ...
HP Premium Presentation Glossy Laser Paper
Experiment with different types of paper to see which prints best for your particular printer. Multi-type paper packs are great for this
Canon Pro Paper Samples Pack 8657B012
Hahnemuhle FineArt Glossy Inkjet Paper Sample Pack
Tip #3 - Understand your printer's settings
Use the settings that best fit what you're printing. If you're printing something with just text or black outlines you can use a lower quality setting to print quickly and conserve ink.
If printing a full-color artwork to hang in your home, you'll want to use the 'highest quality' or 'photo' settings.
You may also need to select a "color setting' which may involve choosing between RGB or CMYK. This starts to get pretty involved for the average person who's just trying to print something and have it look good.
Basically what this means is that your image is going from screen colors RGB (Red, Green, Blue) to printed colors CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black), which correspond to the colors of ink in your printer. Many printers will do the conversion automatically for you by using the assumption that your document/art is sRGB (note: the standard color profile for most documents online and downloadable printables is sRGB). Probably the easiest solution is to do a sample print using the one color profile and if it doesn't look good try the other one.
The other variable you'll need to address is choosing the setting according to the paper sheen (glossy/satin/mat etc.) The paper package will usually indicate the sheen. If not you should be able to guess just from looking at the paper in good light.
Be sure to adjust the setting to select the correct size/scale for the paper you are using and also select the proper paper orientation whether it's 'horizontal' or 'portrait'. Usually, there'll be a print preview setting on your printer where you can see what the layout of the final printout will look like. This way if you don't like what you see you can adjust it before doing the actual printing.
If you do choose to scale the image there are a few rules…check out tip #4 to see how to best scale your images.
Another part of this whole paper equation is how your printer deals with the thickness of the paper you've chosen. Even though your particular printer may be able to print on thicker paper you may need to hand feed the paper one at a time via a by-pass slot (especially for card stock or envelopes). If you're using the feed tray, empty all the regular paper from the tray and place only a few pieces of your select paper in the tray while printing in order to avoid jamming. You may also have to adjust some settings on your printer to accept thicker types of paper. Depending on your printer this can either be a software setting or a manual setting on the actual printer.
Tip #4 - Scaling to resize images
When you download a printable image it may not be the size you need. If this is the case the size will need to be adjusted.
But first, there are a few things you should know about changing the size of an image as it will affect the quality of the printout.
Chances are the image you download is a jpg or pdf. Both of these file types are raster images, meaning they have a fixed size with a fixed resolution (unlike vector images which are can be scaled and are a whole different ball of wax). The resolution of a raster image is made up of little squares or ‘pixels’ (on screens) or ‘dots’ (when printing). Pixels and dots are counted in per square inch increments to express a concept called ‘resolution’. The higher the dpi (dots per inch) or ppi (pixels per inch), the better the resolution and the clearer and sharper the image will be.
Note: screen resolution is 72 ppi and printing resolution is best done at 300 dpi. You'll notice that you don’t need as much resolution to show a sharp clear image on a screen as you do when printing on paper. Just so you don’t get too confused most people use dpi to refer to both pixels and dots.
When an image has a fixed resolution you can make it smaller and not lose quality but if you try to increase the size, the picture will become blurry as there's not enough pixels or image data to make up for the increased resolution.
Above are photos showing the results of scaling an image.
The apple on the right is the correct resolution so it looks clear and crisp on screen (500x500 at 72 dpi (dots per inch)).
I took the apple on the right and then saved it at a quarter of the file size (125x125 at 72dpi) this is the small apple in the middle.
The resolution of the inset small apple is the same as the apple to the right (72dpi) but the apple is only clear at a very small size (125x125pixels), as three-quarters of the image data or pixels (500x500 down to 125x125) has been thrown away in order to make it small.
If I took that small apple and then made it big again (500x500) it will now have a resolution of 18 dpi (if my math is correct). The re-enlarged apple photo on the left looks very blurry because there are not enough pixels per inch to make the image clear. Making the picture bigger did not add any new picture data so the picture must be made with a fewer number of pixels.
Think of pixels or dots as a grid of squares. Each square/dot/pixel can only be one color. If you have a few squares (low resolution) you can only make a small picture with no fine detail. If you have lots of squares (high resolution), you can have more variety of colors and shading and more fine details.
To go from a high resolution (lots of squares) to a lower resolution, some squares are lost. The colors are averaged between the remaining squares, losing some detail and maybe making the colors a little "muddy" as they are blended.
There are some tricks to making images larger than the original but that's beyond the scope of this article, and probably best left to professional graphic designers doing lots of tinkering using photoshop.
To print a pdf in a smaller scale check out the video from Adobe below
Printing at a smaller scale can be accomplished by using the controls on your printer. If the image is larger than the printable area adjust by clicking "fit to paper" or by manually scaling by percentage to fit within the printable area.
There are a few types of printers that have a 'borderless' print setting which means you can print right to the edges of the paper, but for all other printers, a blank border around the outside of the paper will remain. You can always use a paper trimmer to cut away the extra white border especially for something like a greeting card.
I have a mini paper trimmer that I use all the time. I find it's so much easier and quicker than using scissors. If you have an excess white paper to trim, the cuts made with a trimmer look much cleaner and leave a much straighter edge.
Fiskars 196920-1001 Portable Scrapbooking Trimmer, 12 Inch
Tip #5 - Take it to a professional printer
If you don't want to invest in a quality printer and your printing needs are few, or if this all seems like just too much hassle, you can just put your stuff on a USB thumb drive and go have them printed at your local service bureau like:
The quality will be great but it will also be a bit expensive if you have lots of stuff to print. Be sure to get a quote beforehand to avoid any surprises. It will usually cost extra to have your job printed quickly while you wait.
I’ve frequently gone the professional printing root. Usually, because my printer wasn’t working, or it was a large volume job, or the size of the printout I needed was too large for my printer. Pro shops have lots of options that are either unavailable or inconvenient for those printing at home.
You can also get printing done online through providers like:
I can't recommend one over the other, but it's still worth 'google-ing' for further choices. Of course, if purchasing online you'll have to wait for the printouts, so it's not something you'll have in hand today.
Copyright may be an issue if taking it to a pro-printer. They’ll want to know that you have the legal right to print the image, especially with something like artwork. As an artist, I’m completely on board with that. Even if you're not getting them professionally printed you should still check that you have the legal right to print whatever it is that you're trying to print.
I’ve given lots of information to go with each of the 5 printing tips above. Hopefully, I’ve answered some questions that you may have been wondering about. Some of the concepts I discussed, especially around resolution are a little more in-depth than most folks need to know if just printing printables. But I think it’s better to know too much than not enough.
Be sure to sign up below to get a free printable to give your new found knowledge a whirl.
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