Prints are ideal for art lovers looking for an affordable option.
Making prints of your original artwork creates a more affordable and appealing art option to many consumers. Several websites, such as Imagekind or Artist Rising, will make and sell prints of your artwork -- all you do is upload your digital image to their site and they take care of the sales, printing, framing, packing and sending. This is a costly service, however, with many of these sites charging a monthly fee or taking a cut of up to 85 percent of your sales. You can make your own prints for much less money with a computer, scanner and printer or access to a print shop.
Instructions
1. Lay your artwork face-down on your scanner bed and scan it onto your computer. If your artwork is larger than the scanner bed, scan different parts of it until you're sure the entire work is scanned. Scan the images at 300 dots per inch (dpi) or more and save them in Tag Image File Format (TIFF) on your computer.
2. Open photo editing software such as Photoshop or Pixelmator on your computer and pull up the scanned image you saved. If you scanned multiple images of your artwork, pull them up separately, copy and paste them into one new image file and piece them together. Zoom in as far as possible and try to get the edges to match up perfectly. Perform any cropping, color correction or other editing as desired, then save the image again, making sure it's still in TIFF format.
3. Print the image with your own high-quality laser printer and paper. If your printer isn't up to par or you need a larger print, save the image on a thumb drive or CD and take it to a professional printer, such as Kinko's. They will make prints in a wide variety of sizes and types of paper for an affordable price.
4. Store each print in its own plastic envelope, backed with an acid-free board. This protects the prints from humidity and other damage. You can also mat and frame the prints for a more authentic look.
