How to make prints of your art, from a painting to a painted miniature
Learning how to make prints of your art comes down to three things, in order: a clean digital copy, a size the file can carry, and a surface that suits the work. That holds for a painting on paper and for a painted miniature. The only difference is that a figure gets photographed, not scanned.
Jump to a section · 11 sections
How do I print my own art prints?
Photograph or scan the work, check the file is big enough for the size you want, upload it, choose a size and look at the crop before you order. A painted miniature goes the same way, starting from a photo of the figure. On our print page that route is “Print as it is”: your image goes to print unchanged, with no AI step. The sections below take each part in turn.
What are digital prints?
The University of Illinois preservation guide defines a digital print as "any image or document that has been printed from a digital source (i.e. a digital image file)" (Digital Prints). For your work that means the file you upload is what gets printed, so the copy decides the result. If you want the file itself, not a printed object, a digital download is a separate product.
Everything downstream depends on the copy. A perfect paper choice can’t rescue a photograph taken at an angle under a ceiling light, and no amount of editing puts back detail that was never captured.
Get a copy worth printing
Flat, square to the camera, evenly lit, and colour you can trust. The artwork photography guide covers all four, and it is worth reading before you take the picture, not after.
If the original is digital you can skip this entirely - but export at full size, not at whatever the last upload needed.
Making prints of a painted miniature
A miniature won’t go on a scanner or under a copy stand, so the copy is a photograph, and a phone is enough. To get one that prints well, light the figure softly, bring the phone down level with its face, make sure that face is sharp, stand plain card behind it, and check the colour against the model on your desk. Our miniature photography guide takes each one in turn.
Leave the whole figure in the picture, base included, with a little space round it. Every product is a fixed shape, so your photo is cropped to fit it. A photo cut tight to the tip of a spear leaves nothing to crop into.
Then pick a route. Print as it is keeps your photo exactly as you took it. Create a scene uses AI to regenerate your figure in a new setting from your photo. It can change small details, so compare the result with your original using our checklist before you approve it.
Not painted it yet? How to paint miniatures goes from priming and base coats to shade, light and the base, before the camera comes out.
Work out what size the file will carry
Your maximum size falls out of one division: the pixel count over the dpi gives you inches. So at 300 dpi an A4 needs 2480 × 3508 pixels, an A3 needs 3508 × 4961, and an A2 needs 4961 × 7016.
Treat 300 dpi as a habit for work held close, not a requirement. Something big, read from the other side of a room, is fine at half that, and halving the dpi halves every pixel count above. The paper sizes pages set out every size with its pixel count, and our upload step measures your actual file and withdraws any size it wouldn’t print sharply - so the decision is made for you if the file can’t reach.
What the file needs to reach for each thing we print: posters from A4 to 70 × 100 cm, framed prints at A3 or A2, canvas from 30 × 40 to 60 × 80 cm, framed canvas from 30 × 40 to 50 × 70 cm, metal from 30 × 40 to 50 × 70 cm, and wood at 30 × 40 or 40 × 50 cm. A photo of a miniature is usually cropped to lose the desk round it, and every crop takes pixels with it, so judge the size after the crop, not before.
How to make prints of your art on the right paper
Match the surface to the marks. Uncoated matte paper suits pencil, ink and line work, because nothing competes with the detail. Coated stock lifts saturation and suits photographs and dense digital colour. Canvas suits things that were painted, because the weave returns some of the texture the original had.
Our posters are 250 gsm uncoated off-white archival paper; the format guide compares it against canvas, metal and wood.
What a print of your miniature looks like
Uncoated paper has a matte surface, with no gloss on it. A framed print comes in a black or natural wood frame with a plexiglass front, fitted and ready to hang. Canvas is wrapped round a 2 cm frame. Metal is a 3 mm aluminium panel with a matte white finish, and wood is a plywood panel printed edge to edge.
Think about the background you shot against. A painted miniature photographed against dark card prints best on wood, because the dark background keeps the grain out of the picture and leaves the figure to carry the colour. A figure shot on white card will show the wood through the background.
Editions, numbering and whether to bother
An edition is a promise about scarcity: fifty prints, numbered, and no more ever. It’s a real commitment and it’s worth something to collectors, which is why it shouldn’t be made casually - you can’t quietly print more later without it being a lie.
Open editions have no such limit and no such promise. For most people selling occasionally, open is the simpler and clearer choice, and no buyer is misled.
Pricing, and the sum people skip
Work out the print cost, the packaging, the postage and the platform fee, add them up, and only then decide what the work is worth on top. The mistake is pricing against what other people charge before knowing what a sale actually leaves you.
Smaller sizes sell more often and earn less each. That isn’t a problem to solve, it’s just the shape of it - and it is why a range of sizes usually beats one.
Signing and packing
Sign in pencil in the margin, not in ink on the image, which is the convention and is also reversible. If the print is an edition, the number goes on the opposite side of the margin.
Pack flat in board, not rolled in a tube where you can. Rolled prints arrive with a curl that the buyer has to deal with, and a flat package is the difference between an object and a chore.
Selling art online without a shop
Print to order instead of holding stock. Unsold boxes of prints are how people lose money on this, and made-to-order removes the risk entirely at the cost of a slightly lower margin, which is a trade worth making until you know what sells.
Questions and answers
What resolution do I need to make art prints?
At 300 dpi: 2480 × 3508 pixels for A4, 3508 × 4961 for A3, 4961 × 7016 for A2. At 150 dpi, which is fine for something viewed from across a room, halve each figure.
What paper is best for art prints?
Uncoated matte for pencil, ink and line work; coated for photographs and dense digital colour; canvas for work that was painted. Match the surface to the marks.
Should I do a limited edition?
Only if you mean it - an edition is a promise you can’t break later by printing more. Open editions are simpler and clearer for most people selling occasionally.
How should I price an art print?
Add up print cost, packaging, postage and fees first, then decide what the work is worth on top. Pricing against other people before knowing what a sale leaves you is the usual mistake.
What is a digital print?
A print made directly from a digital image. The file you upload is what is printed, so a sharp copy at a size it can carry matters more than anything else.
How do I turn my paintings into prints?
Take a sharp, evenly lit photo or scan of the painting, square to the camera. Check it has enough pixels for the size you want: 2480 × 3508 for A4 at 300 dpi. Then upload it on our print page, which checks the file against every size before you can choose one.
Can I print from my phone?
Yes. You can upload a photo straight from your phone on our print page, which takes JPEG, PNG and WebP files of 10 MB or less. Send the original photo, not a screenshot of it.