There are three options for printing printable wall art. You can print at home, at a local print shop, or online. Printing at home is the quickest way to get your prints, but you are limited by the type of printer you have. Local print shops generally are ready within a day and range from small local companies to major retailers like Staples, Office Depot, and Walgreens. Online shops like Vistaprint or Shutterfly will take the longest because they will need to ship the prints to you, but they make up for that with vast variety of products that they can put a design on.
Quick Steps To Printing Wall Art
- Find the image you want to print.
- Decide If you are going to print at home, at a print shop, or online.
- Scale your image to the size you want.
- Check the quality of your print at that size, it is best to stay near 300 DPI and not go below 150.
- Print or have printed, and result look best when put in a frame.
What is Printable Wall Art?
These are images that you can download and print. You can print at home or use a service to print these images. What makes printable wall art great is that it is a cost effective way to decorate, and it is very easy to switch out images to update your homes décor.
Can I Print Printable Wall Art At Home?
Yes, you can use your home printer to print your wall art. You will be limited to the size of print you can make based on the size of paper your printer will take. Typically, this will be 8.5″ by 11″. While you can use general use copy paper, it does not look as good as using a heavy cardstock like paper. I recommend getting a matte finish, the gloss from photo paper can be distracting. For more on how to print at home, here is an article I wrote on that.
Examples
Epson Ultra Premium Presentation Paper MATTE (amazon)
PPD Inkjet Canvas 100% Real Printable Cotton (amazon)
There are plenty of other options to choose from though (some ways are more expensive). You just want to make sure the paper is heavy and matte for the best looking prints.
Can I Get My Printable Wall Art Printed For Me?
Yes, this is a great option because these companies will have better printers and be able to print more sizes than you could at home. While at most places you will be able to show up with your photos saved on a thumb drive and have them printed, it is more time efficient to use their websites. From there you can schedule a pick up time or have the prints shipped to your home.
You can use companies like Staples, Office Depot, or Walgreens for local pick up. If you want more variety and larger sizes, consider services like Office Depot, Vistaprint and Shutterfly.
What File Type Do I Need For Printable Wall Art
For printable wall art you can use many file types JPG, PNG, TIFF, but by far the most common file type you are going to see for printable wall art is PDF. PDF files retain a high print quality while keeping the file size down.
JPG files are great for online photos because of the file size, but that reduction in file size means there will be a reduction in print quality.
PNG files can keep a good print quality, but their main advantage is transparent backgrounds. Transparent backgrounds are great if you want to layer an image over some text or a background.
TIFF files you will never see if you are looking for printable wall art online. While it has the highest quality, the file sizes are so large that transmitting them online and offering them as a download doesn’t make sense.
Can I Adjust The Size Of My Printable?
Yes, you can adjust the size of your printable wall art. You will not need any specialty software to do this when opening common file types like PDF files. If the file is showing up oversized for the page, click the “shrink to fit” option and that should solve the problem. If you want a custom size on the page, click “custom scale” and adjust the percentage until you get the image to the size you want.
How Large Can I Print My Printable Wall Art?
If printing at home you are limited to the size of your printer. If using a printing service you are limited by the size of your file. The highest quality prints are going to be at 300 dpi (dots per inch) as you move down from there, the quality will go down, anything below 150 dpi is considered a low resolution image. Most images will have a resolution in pixels unless they are a vector. For a 8.5″ by 11″ printable to be 300 dpi you need the image to be 2550 by 3300 pixels. If you make a image that is 2550 by 3300 pixels larger then 8.5″ by 11′” you will see drop in DPI. If the image is a vector however, you can enlarge the image as much as you want because the image is built of scalable shapes and not pixels.
Where To Get Printable Wall Art
Etsy is a great place to start. With so many small independent artist on there, you are likely going to find something you will love.
If you are looking for free printable wall art you might have to do some digging. A great place for vintage wall art is the Library Of Congress and USDA.
However, if you are like me and want something free and modern, Pinterest is going to be your best source. There are many creators online that offer free printable wall art and Pinterest is a great search engine for finding them.
Its very likely that is exactly how you found me!
Here is some free printable wall art you can download for personal use. You can click on the images below to download from the shop. The files come zipped, so you will have to unzip them after downloading.
I recommend joining the Resource Library for easier downloads and more free options. I have a lot of PNGs on there as well that would make for great wall art!
