How to Create Art Prints at Home: The Printer, Paper and Steps for Your First Batch

5 Amazing Printing Solutions for Artists 1:18:40

You can make art prints at home with a good photo of your painting, a wide-format inkjet printer and archival fine art paper. The printer is the easy part. The photo and the color correction decide whether a buyer holds something that looks like your painting or a dull copy of it.

Everything below comes from our print business workshop, where we walked artists through how we make and sell prints. Home printing makes the most sense when you sell in person (markets, art fairs, a studio show, a salon or winery that’ll set a stack of your prints by the register) or want copies to give family and friends. If you mostly sell online, our guide on how to make prints of paintings compares your own printer with local print shops and print on demand services, which print and ship each order for you after it sells.

What do you need to make art prints at home?

You need five things: a camera, editing software, a wide-format inkjet printer, archival fine art paper, and mats with clear sleeves. That’s the whole kit.

1. A camera. A newer smartphone is enough. A DSLR is a little truer on soft, blended edges, but Jake said in the workshop that they’ve sold lots of prints shot on an iPhone.
2. Editing software. Photoshop, Lightroom or Pixelmator Pro will crop, correct color and enlarge a file.
3. A wide-format inkjet printer. Wide-format means it takes paper bigger than letter size. The workshop used the Epson Expression Photo HD XP-15000. Epson lists it as printing up to 13 by 19 inches, and it cost about $350 when the workshop was filmed.
4. Fine art paper. A thick, archival paper made for inkjet printing. The workshop recommends a heavy velvet fine art paper.
5. Mats and sleeves. Precut mats that come with clear bags. The workshop quoted about $35 for a pack of 25, which works out to roughly $1.50 each.

All in, that’s about $400 to $500 to start at those prices. After that, the workshop figure is under $5 a print. Prices change, so check them before you buy.

How do you photograph a painting to make a print?

Photograph it in flat, even light with no glare, with the camera square to the painting so the edges stay straight. Shoot outside if you can. Daylight shows the true color, so the photo still matches the painting once it becomes a file.

A few things help:

• Shoot in open shade or on an overcast day. Direct sun throws glare off wet-looking paint and varnish.
• Fill the frame. Get close enough that the painting takes up most of the picture, then crop the rest.
• If you have a DSLR, use a medium lens. Jake uses a 50 to 70 millimeter lens, which keeps the painting flat with less warping at the edges.

You don’t need a scanner. Big flatbed scans used to be the standard, and the workshop put the cost at around $200 an image. They also blur and cast shadows on thick paint, collage and unstretched canvas. A recent phone camera handles all of that. For setup details, see how to photograph your art.

How do you get the file ready to print?

Crop the photo to the painting’s edges, remove every speck of dust, and correct the color until the screen matches the painting sitting next to it. Then save that version as your master file.

If your photo is small, you can upscale it, which means letting the software enlarge it and fill in detail so it prints sharp at a bigger size. Photoshop, Lightroom and Pixelmator Pro all do this, and the workshop said it takes about two clicks.

Keep the master file. Every reprint comes from it, so you’ll never have to photograph that painting again.

How do you print and fix the colors?

Print a few samples first, then adjust the file and print again. Expect a short learning curve, because the first print almost never matches the painting.

It’s usually the blacks and the colors that are off. A dark navy can print as a flat gray, or a deep shadow can lose all its detail. The workshop tip is to adjust the black point a little (it’s in the Levels or Curves tool of most editing apps) so the darks print as deep as they are on the canvas. Then compare the print to the original in daylight and tweak one setting at a time.

Write down what worked for each paper. Once you know the settings, every print after that goes fast.

What size and paper should you print on?

Start small. Jake’s suggestion in the workshop was an 8 by 10 image on 11 by 14 paper. It fits a desktop printer, a standard mat and a price most people at a market will say yes to.

Use matte fine art paper for most prints. It’s what you’ll mat, it holds detail without shine, and it looks like art on a table. Save canvas and very large sizes for later. A printer that handles those, like the Epson SureColor P8000 the workshop described (prints up to 44 inches, takes canvas and many fine art papers), ran around $4,000 plus rolls of paper. It suits artists already running limited editions often.

How do you finish and present home prints?

Mat each print, slide it into a clear sleeve, and frame a few to show people how they’ll look on a wall. A loose sheet of paper on a table looks like a souvenir, and the same print in a crisp white mat looks like art.

The workshop’s advice is to frame a handful as samples, which costs about $20 to $50 each. Someone who sees a framed print hanging can picture it in their own hallway, and that’s often what makes the sale.

Sign every print by hand. If you sell a limited edition (a set number of prints, never reprinted), number each one and include a certificate of authenticity. An open edition, which you can reprint as often as you like, needs a signature only. Our guide to selling art prints covers the difference.

How much should you charge for prints you make at home?

At about $5 to make, a small matted print priced around $25 leaves you roughly $20 on every sale. That’s the example from the workshop, built for markets and fairs.

Your original prices matter here too. A print has to sit well below your original so both make sense to a buyer. Our guide on how to price artwork walks through it.

Is printing at home worth it?

It’s worth it if you sell in person and want to find out which paintings people love. Even if you only earn back the printer, you’ll have watched strangers pick one of your images over another with their own money.

Keep notes at every market: how many people stopped, which prints sold, how many of each. Every show teaches you something, and the notes are how you know a change actually helped.

If you’d rather test the waters first, sell a few images through print on demand, see which ones move, then buy the printer. Either way, a print is only as good as the painting behind it, and the more paintings you finish, the more chances you have to make the one people want on their walls. If you’d like help painting more and painting better, Milan Art’s 2-Week Challenge is a good place to start.

Frequently asked questions

Can you make good art prints at home?

Yes. A wide-format inkjet printer with pigment or archival inks and a heavy fine art paper can make prints good enough to sell at markets, fairs and from your studio. The quality comes as much from the photo of your painting and the color correction as from the printer itself.

What printer do I need to print my own art?

For small prints, a wide-format desktop inkjet is enough. In our print business workshop Jake used the Epson Expression Photo HD XP-15000, which Epson lists as printing up to 13 by 19 inches and which cost about $350 when the workshop was filmed. Large-format printers that take canvas and rolls of paper start around $4,000 and only make sense once you're printing big editions often.

Do I need a scanner to make prints of my paintings?

No. Our workshop's advice is that a newer smartphone or a DSLR does the job, and that paying for a professional scan (around $200 an image when the workshop was filmed) isn't necessary anymore. Scanners also struggle with textured paintings, collage and unstretched canvas, which a camera handles fine.

How much does it cost to make art prints at home?

Plan on roughly $400 to $500 to start, covering the printer, ink, fine art paper, mats and sleeves, at the prices quoted in our workshop. After that, a small matted print costs about $5 to make, so a $25 print at a market leaves a healthy margin. Check current prices before you buy.

Should I print at home or use print on demand?

Print at home when you sell mostly in person, at markets, fairs or studio shows, because you can make prints cheaply and hand them over the same day. Use print on demand when you sell online and don't want to pack and ship. Many artists start with print on demand to see which images sell, then buy a printer once they know.

What paper is best for art prints at home?

Use a heavy, archival fine art paper made for inkjet printers. Our workshop recommends a thick velvet fine art paper, and matte paper is what you'll mat for most market prints. Printing on cheap copy or photo paper is fine for a test, never for a print you sell.