Question for all my friends who make and sell prints of their art

[hideincarnate]

If you have ever printed out your art for sale or just for display, did you print them at home or did you take them to a printers?I tried printing an art project out here at my house. And it came out looking...not as good as it does on the computer. Like...it looks pixelated and I can see every dot of color. So it doesn't look very smooth or

Comments

[pacificpikachu]

I'm reeeally bad at explaining these sorts of things, but here's a page that will explain it better hopefully?

http://www.photoshopessentials.com/essentials/image-quality/

[hideincarnate]

Thanks for the link! It explained everything really well so now I understand it all a lot better!

[pacificpikachu]

Good, good! I'm glad it helped! :D

[karadin]

make sure that before you start to draw in the computer than your image size is large, at least 8 1/2 x 11, if you create a small image, it is almost impossible to make it look better larger.

I make my own prints at home, but I purchased a good ink-jet printer, these make better prints for artists. When you take your prints to a Kinko's or Fed Ex, they aren't always willing or knowlegable in how to tweak color scales to make the image look the way you want, at home you know your own settings. Printing at home can be more expensive because the inks will cost you more, but you can also print on a wider range of paper, including acid-free and even handmade papers, with some printers.

[hideincarnate]

Well, I actually tend to draw by hand, and I draw on paper that big, if not bigger.

Yeah, I wanted to print at home so I could experiment with paper types.

I changed the image resolution - which of course defaulted to 72 - to the professional standard. I plan to reprint the image now to see if it helped or if it's really the type of printer I have.

Thanks for the advice! =D

[karadin]

I draw large size, but always scan at 300dpi. Which is actually the professional standard for production art.

72 is a good web resolution, it shows up pretty clear and does not take up a lot of space to store.

[hideincarnate]

...How do I know if my scanner SCANS at 300dpi? My mom has this all-in-one printer/scanner/fax combo...I'm not sure I can tweak the settings all that much. =S

Well, I changed it to 300 dpi in GIMP, and printed it out in GIMP, and it looks the same color wise. Like I can see all the individual dots of color - a grainy appearance except for on the color black. So I am wondering if it's the PAPER or the type of printer we have? =S

But could it be the file type as well? I've been printing GIF images - I wanted the background to be transparent so the paper could be the BG - but is that not a good file type to print? Should I try them as JPGs?

And even though I changed the DPI in GIMP, and save it, each time I reopen it, the DPI is back to 72. So...it isn't staying 300 DPI...so I am a bit frustrated.

[windup_bird]

I've never done prints, necessarily, but I have a few more tips as a graphic designer! First of all always, always, always scan at 300dpi (most scanners should have this setting; mine does and it's an all-in-one). Other tips: change your mode to CMYK and save it as either a pdf or tif.

Why? CMYK are the colors your printer uses, not RGB, and will give you a more accurate read-out on your screen of how they will print out on paper. It will also make it easier for your printer to read and translate the file. And tifs/pdfs have the highest saving quality and don't tend to downgrade/pixelate/etc when you save them.

Last note: you don't have to save it as a gif to have a "transparent" background. As long as the background color is white it won't print anything and will let the paper color do its work.

[hideincarnate]

Thanks! I should have just asked you first but noooo I had to try to do this all on my own!

But now I'm like...depressed about this whole project because I scanned it in, and then colored it all on my computer. And it's just the way I want it now EXCEPT for how it prints, and the only way to fix is to redo the settings on the scanner and RESCAN the line art and color it all over again. 8;D

[windup_bird]

Live and learn! ♥

Awwwww that really sucks. I seriously hate when that happens.

[hideincarnate]

Indeed! How was the rest of your week/weekend?

Well, I mean it's that or seeing if a printer place can print it better than my printer can. =/

[vivamente]

I JUST PRINTED!

What size did you want your image? I think SAI allows you to change the resolution first when you start drawing.

It's a pain, but you have to draw on 300 dpi and on CYMK [you can convert this later, but I dunno how on GIMP or SAI], not RGB, cos printers print in CYMK, usually, and the colours may end up looking a bit different. But A4 300 dpi would be roughly 2000+x3000+ pixels.

If you have a good inkjet, just having a high DPI will be find, I just do inkjet printing on thicker paper [250gsm instead of the normal] at the uni for 3 bucks instead of the Epson prints [the photo quality stuff] at 8 bucks a piece. It really depends on what you're going for :>

[hideincarnate]

I want them to be about...1inchX1inch - about the size of a stamp.

Aaaand of course I just checked and SAI and GIMP don't have the CYMK option.

Just...god fucking dammit. Can't I make and print art WITHOUT Photoshop?! I don't have the money to get a copy of it that would WORK.

[vivamente]

Oh hay, that should be really easy to do then :>

alksdakjd bah dammit GIMP AND SAI. If anything, I know most of us have PS, if you finalise all your stuff, just send me the flattened TIFF files and I can convert and adjust the colour. I usually go straight ahead and do mine in RGB first before CYMK anyway, cos RGB looks better on screen >w> [if GIMP and SAI don't do TIFF files, then PNGs will be good too, and I'll go straight ahead and make them into TIFF files for you. JPEG's too lossy 8<]

[hideincarnate]

Thanks for the offer but I local graphic designer friend changed them for me and sent them back to me. He also printed them out at his house and they're no longer "dotty" as he called them.

It's just...frustrating that I can't make art to sell without Photoshop. I don't have $700-1000 bucks laying around to spend on software. (And downloading a torrent version is hit or miss - it may work for a while but then all of a sudden it gives up the ghost, ot the latest version doesn't work with your tablet, and so on.)