How to Make Prints of Your Art: A Step-by-Step Guide for Artists

Making prints of your art lets one original reach many collectors. The process comes down to five decisions: how you capture the original, how you prepare the file, which sizes you offer, which paper or surface you print on, and who prints and ships each order. This guide walks through each step in order.

Brakebee is an online art marketplace and selling platform for working artists, with its own print lab in Phoenix. Artists list their work once and sell it on the Brakebee marketplace, on their own shop and through add-on channels such as Etsy, Shopify and Faire.^1,2 The lab offers dozens of print sizes in gloss, satin and matte aluminum, gloss or matte photo, gallery-wrap canvas and giclée, and every print is hand-checked before it ships.¹ We mention it where it fits, and every step below works with any print partner you choose.

Step 1: Scan or photograph your artwork

Your print can only be as good as the image you start from. Flat work that fits on a flatbed scanner, such as drawings, watercolors and small paintings, usually scans well. Large canvases, textured work and pieces under glass are usually photographed instead.

When you scan, judge a scanner by its optical resolution. Scanner makers often advertise much higher interpolated numbers, and those add pixels without adding real detail.³ Higher resolution also makes much larger files, since doubling the resolution quadruples the file size, so choose a setting that captures the detail you need for the largest print you plan to sell.³

When you photograph, shoot square to the work in even, diffuse light, with the camera on a tripod and the artwork filling as much of the frame as possible. Include a neutral gray card in a test shot so you can correct color later.

Step 2: Prepare the file

Save a master file in a lossless format, then make smaller copies for the web from that master. Lossy compression such as JPEG shrinks files at some cost in quality.³

Check the resolution at your planned print size. Pixels per inch is simply the number of pixels across the image divided by the print width in inches, so an image that is 3,000 pixels wide printed 10 inches wide has 300 pixels per inch.⁴ As the print gets bigger, the pixels per inch drop, and a file that looks sharp on screen can print soft at a large size.⁴ Viewing distance matters too, since work seen from across a room can get by with fewer pixels per inch than a print viewed up close.⁴

Before you save the final master, crop to the edges of the artwork, correct color against the original under good light, and remove dust or scanner marks.

Step 3: Choose your art print sizes

Your original has a shape, and the sizes you offer should keep that shape. An image cropped to a different shape loses part of the composition. Group your sizes by aspect ratio:

4:5 / Slightly taller than wide / 8 x 10, 16 x 20, 24 x 30 / Originals close to square

2:3 / Longer rectangle / 8 x 12, 12 x 18, 24 x 36 / Photographs and long landscapes

3:4 / Between the two / 9 x 12, 12 x 16, 18 x 24 / Originals painted at 3:4, such as 12 x 16 canvases

1:1 / Square / 8 x 8, 12 x 12, 20 x 20 / Square canvases and panels]

Standard photographic print sizes are widely sold as cut sheets, and in the US many are named by the short edge, such as 8R for an 8 by 10 inch print.⁵ Offering a few standard art print sizes makes framing easier for buyers. Start with three sizes in one ratio, from small to statement size, and add more once you see what sells.

Step 4: Choose paper and surfaces

The best paper for art prints depends on the work. Matte fine art papers suit watercolor, drawing and painting reproductions, while gloss and satin photo papers suit photography and saturated digital work. For inkjet prints, pigment-based inks generally last longest when paired with the right paper, and cotton rag is one of the fine art paper types used for this.⁶

Beyond paper, artists often offer:

• **Giclée prints** for fine art reproductions on archival paper.
• **Gallery-wrap canvas** for a painterly look that needs no frame.
• **Aluminum metal prints** in gloss, satin or matte for vivid color and a modern finish.
• **Photo prints** in gloss or matte for photography and graphic work.

On Brakebee, all of these finishes run in the Phoenix lab, and you can go beyond wall art with notecards, calendars, coasters and other custom products.¹

Step 5: Order a test print

Order one print of each size and surface you plan to sell and compare it with the original under the light where it will hang. Check color, detail in the darkest and lightest areas, and the edges. Brakebee lets artists try a print of their work before they list it.¹ Adjust the file if needed, then reprint until you are happy.

Step 6: Choose how prints get made and shipped

Once the file is right, decide who prints and ships each order. There are three common ways to do it, and on Brakebee you can use any of them:

• **Print on demand from the Phoenix lab.** Each print is made only after a collector pays, then packed and shipped by the lab, usually within hours to a day. You hold no inventory and get paid after the product ships.¹
• **Ship it yourself.** Order a print run of your own files from the same Phoenix lab when you need stock, then pack and ship orders from your studio. Brakebee shipping labels send tracking to the buyer.²
• **Use a third-party fulfillment partner.** If you already work with a print or fulfillment partner, you can route orders to them.

Many artists mix these, keeping stock for art fairs and letting print on demand handle online orders. Our guide to print lab vs print-on-demand compares the two models in more depth, and metal prints for artists covers aluminum prints in detail.

Step 7: Sell your prints

With prints ready, the next step is getting them in front of buyers. Our guide on how to sell prints of your art online covers pricing strategy, listings and channels, and our roundup of print-on-demand for artists compares print-on-demand services side by side. If you want prints sold from a site on your own domain, Brakebee Custom Sites can design one for you, with current pricing on the Custom Sites pricing section.

Try a print of your work

¹ Source: Brakebee Print on Demand page, brakebee.com/print-on-demand, as published on 10/17/2026.

² Source: Brakebee for Artists and Makers page, brakebee.com/makers, as published on 10/17/2026.

³ Source: "Image scanner," Wikipedia, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image_scanner, accessed 10/17/2026.

⁴ Source: "Pixel density," Wikipedia, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixel_density, accessed 10/17/2026.

⁵ Source: "Photographic print sizes," Wikipedia, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photo_print_sizes, accessed 10/17/2026.

⁶ Source: "Print permanence," Wikipedia, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Print_permanence, accessed 10/17/2026.