How to Create Art Prints and Posters
Information for artists who want to make prints of their original artwork.
Join a Print on Demand Community
You can use an online service such as RedBubble, CafePress, Zazzle, ArtistRising, or ImageKind. This is one of the easiest ways to make and sell prints of your work. Just make your images digital, then upload them and place them on various products using the online software. A website is included with your account, they provide the shopping cart, do all of the printing, accounting, and shipping.
Scan or photograph your work to make it digital. A standard sized scanner (about 8 1/2 x 14) isn't very expensive. If your work won't fit on a scanner that size, you can take it to a print shop like Kinkos and have smaller prints made, then just scan the smaller print. Or you can have Kinkos make digital copies of your larger works for you with their large format scanner. You can also make your work digital by having it professionally photographed.
Even though a website or portfolio site is included with these services you still have to promote it! If you already have your own website, then you have an advantage, if not you should consider making one. No matter what you do, you should still promote your website or portfolio. Read more about promotion here: Search Engines, Linking Advice, Offline Promotion
Make Prints at Kinkos (FedEx Office)
Try the printers at Kinkos, you can make brilliant copies of your art at amazing prices. Great for making smaller sizes up to 11 x 17. Your prints will come out on standard sized paper, but if you need a special size they will cut them for you.
If your original work is digital, print out one copy from a computer then take that copy over to the DocuColor to print out more - the DocuColor is about half the price.
If your work is too large for the scanner bed, simply have Kinkos reproduce it in a smaller size. The bed size for the DocuColor is about 16 x 20.
You can adjust the controls of the DocuColor to make your work print out with different color balances, more vivid, more pastel, darker, lighter, and so on. Some locations also have a printer called the Fiery, I don't like the quality of this printer but you should try it and see for yourself.
Try all of the printers that they have, some mediums reproduce better than others depending on the type of printer. Visit different outlets, sometimes one outlet will have a certain printer that another one doesn't have.
You can negotiate with Kinkos for a better price, especially if you're creating large quantities of prints.
Package your Prints
Protect your prints while presenting them as a finished product by packaging them. Use a simple acid-free backing board and a clear plastic envelope, or mat your prints and package them with foam board. Impact Images has packaging materials in a wide variety of sizes.
Web Design and Site Review Services
ArtPromote provides professional, affordable website design for artists plus low cost website review services designed to help artists rank higher in the search engines and sell more art.
