Spent an hour at a local art fair and noticed something strange about the digital prints

I went to the Oak Street Art Fair in Portland last Saturday and walked by like 20 vendors selling prints. What caught me off guard was how many of them had obvious compression artifacts in their larger prints (like blocky edges and color banding). One artist told me she just exports straight from Procreate at 300 DPI and calls it done. Has anyone else noticed this at shows or am I just being too picky about file prep?

2 comments

2 Comments

haydenhayes7d ago

300 DPI with zero understanding of actual output resolution. Common rookie mistake. The canvas size matters way more than the DPI setting. An 18x24 inch print needs a 5400x7200 pixel file minimum. Most tablets just don't push that resolution well. Tell her to check her pixel dimensions before exporting. Blew up a 2000x3000 pixel file to poster size once. Looked like fuzzy garbage on the wall. Learned that lesson fast.

ben_fisher7d ago

@haydenhayes nailed it with the 5400x7200 number. I had to learn this the hard way too with a gallery show last year. I did my whole series at 300 DPI but on a 3500x5000 canvas and they looked fine on screen. When the printer blew them up to 20x30 inches the edges got all jagged and the details just melted into a blurry mess. The shop owner actually called me to ask if I exported them wrong. Now I always set my canvas to the actual print size in inches first, then check that my pixel dimensions match what the printer needs before I even start drawing.