Best Printers For Printing Art At Home
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Are you thinking about printing your art prints from home?
Are you searching for the best fine art printer that will not break the bank?
If you’re an artist who sells original artwork and prints online, you’re probably going to need to make prints of your artwork.
It is safe to say that a laser printer purchased at Staples will not do the trick, and outsourcing your printing to your local printer could eat up all your profits.
Another option is outsourcing your prints to a print on demand service but again letting them do the printing and shipping with cut into the profits.
The last option is to research printers for printing artwork.
Whether you’re planning on selling your art at local craft fairs, online, or wish to give them away as gifts, the printer must make a final print that accurately represents artwork.
Selling art prints is an excellent way to generate extra income while waiting for your original art to sell.
There is also an opportunity to market your art to a broader audience who can not afford original artwork but have a passion for your artistic style.
But before you jump in, you will want to know what your options are reproducing your original paintings and drawings.
Options available for artists selling prints:
- Hire a local print shop to create high-quality prints of your art.
- Use a third-party print on demand sites like Printful.
- Print your art prints at home.
- Sell open editions
- Sell limited editions
Outsourcing with a local print shop is an option, but there are upfront costs, and there is no guarantee that the prints you purchase will sell.
Things to consider when choosing a local print shop:
- Price
- Materials
- Colors
- Ink quality
- Paper
Third-party sites like Printful make it easy for artists to sell prints on Etsy and WordPress artist websites.
The positive is that there are no upfront costs when you work with POD (Print On Demand) sites.
All you have to do is upload a digital image to Printful (or a different POD site) and create a listing for the prints you want to sell.
When a person purchases a print from your website or Etsy, Printful will process, print, and ship it to the buyer.
You pay for the cost of the prints and the shipping.
The rest of the money goes into your bank account. You also get to decide how much you would like to receive for each print.
The negative is that prints start at around $9.00, which will affect your selling price.
If you are selling many prints, you might want to consider printing your art prints at home.
Purchasing a high-quality fine art printer is an investment that could increase your profit margin as long as you are selling many prints online and offline.
Should You Purchase A Fine Art Printer
Purchasing art printers for your art business will depend on what your unique goals and objectives are.
I would not recommend purchasing a printer just because you want to sell prints of your art.
Instead, I would recommend learning how to market your art prints online and offline.
Use a print on demand service like Printful and focus on developing a marketing strategy for your art prints.
Start looking for an archival printer when you have built an audience, and your prints are in high demand.
Laser Printers Versus Inkjet Printers
The two different printers for artists, photographers, and graphic designers, are laser and inkjet printers.
What is the difference between an inkjet printer and a laser printer?
The main difference between the two different printers is that laser printers use dried ink, and inkjet printers use liquid ink.
Have you heard the term “Giclee printers?”
Giclee printers are sophisticated printers that use 12 inkjets, making it possible for the printer to get very close to the original colors and values.
Inkjet printers for home do not have 12 inkjets, but it is possible to get a high-quality print when you use an inkjet printer.
Laser printers are suitable for office type work, but I would not recommend using a laser printer for printing fine art prints.
Best Ink For Printing Fina Art Prints
The two inks commonly used for art prints are pigmented ink and dye-based ink.
Pigmented inks are used for giclee prints because of their archival longevity. Archival inks are said to last 75 and 400 years without fading.
Some artists claim that dye-based ink provides a more vivid print, but the ink tends to fade much quicker than archival ink.
What Is An Archival Print
Now that you have looked at some of the best printers for art prints let’s go over some things you will want to know about fine art prints or giclee prints.
Archival prints describe museum quality fine are reproductions.
Archival prints are printed on the finest paper with high-quality inks that do not fade over time.
Giclee printing is a process that uses fade-resistant, archival inks and archival substrates to print on large format printers. (Source: Canvaspop)
A giclee printer is a 12 color inkjet printer that can match the colors of the original more accurately.
The main difference between a digital printer and a giclee printer is how many inkjets the printer has.
The more inkjets a printer has, the more accurate the print’s colors will be.
There are high-quality printers like the ones mentioned below that produce high-quality prints using nine or fewer inkjets.
However, if you are interested in selling giclee prints, you will want to outsource your printing to a local giclee printing shop or purchase a giclee printer.
Printer Size
The size of the printer you will need will be determined by the size prints you are selling.
If you are selling prints that are no larger than an 8 x 10, a regular-sized printer will be suitable.
However, if you are selling larger prints, you will want to research the printer’s specs before purchasing.
Printer Paper
You will want to print your art prints on acid-free high-quality fine art paper, like Hahnemuhle Museum Etching Paper. This type of paper is thicker than standard printing paper so make sure you check what size paper you can use for the printer.
Best Printer/Scanner For Art Prints
Below is a list of some of the best fine art printers available for printing art prints at home.
Take your list of objectives and go scroll down to find the best printer for you.
Canon PIXMA Pro9000 Mark II Inkjet Photo Printer
Canon PIXMA Pro9000 Color Inkjet Printer
Features:
- Maximum 4800 x 2400 dpi (dots per inch)
- Fine print head technology
- Support fine art paper
- Paper size up to 13” x 19”
- Easy-PhotoPrint Pro (Plug-in software for Adobe Photoshop CS/CS2, CS3, and CS3 extended
- Advanced color controls
- Prints 19 B&W pages per minute
The Canon PIXMA Pro900 prints 11” x 14” photo lab-quality color photos in less than two minutes and accommodates heavyweight fine art papers.
Epson Stylus Photo R2000 Wireless Wide-Format Color Inkjet Printer
Epson Stylus Photo R2000 Wireless Wide-Format Color Inkjet Printer (C11CB35201)
Features:
- Industry-leading pigment ink technology
- Vibrant Prints
- 2 pigment ink for color for beautiful skin tones
- Get up to 50% more prints with larger ink cartridges
- Up to 13” wide
- Accommodates roll paper and cut sheets
- Hi-Speed USB 2.0
- Wireless 802.11n and 100 Mbit Ethernet support
- Optimal black density from matte black ink or photo black ink
If you are looking to print wider prints, the Epson Stylus Photo R2000 printer is a good choice. It accommodates a with of 13” and supports fine art paper, canvas, and photographic paper.
Expression Photo HD XP-15000 Printer
Expression Photo HD XP-15000 Wireless Color Wide-Format Printer
Features:
- Borderless prints up to 13” x 19”
- Professional Ultra HD photo quality
- 6-color Claria Photo HD Ink
- Prints up to 20 B&W pages per minute
The Expression Photo HD XP-15000 is a great printer if you are looking for something less expensive. You will have to spend time configuring it the first time you use it but after that, you will be all set and ready to go.
Canon PIXMA PRO-10 Color Professional Inkjet Photo Printer
Canon PIXMA PRO-10 Color Professional Inkjet Photo Printer
Features:
- Optimum Image Generating System logically selects the optimum ink combination and placement to ensure you get exactly what you have envisioned
- Wide color gamut
- Dense blacks
- Prints up to 13” x 19”
- Prints up to 9 B&W pages per minute
- Wireless, Ethernet and USB connections
The Canon PIXMA PRO-10 is another affordable printer that prints high-quality prints.
HP ENVY 5055 All-in-One Printer
- Up to 1200 x 1200 rendered dpi color.
- HP Thermal Inkjet
- 2 inkjets
The HP Envy 5055 Wireless Printer is an all in one multipurpose printer that prints high quality prints on a variety of paper sizes.
Giclee Printers
Giclee printing at home is possible if you are willing to invest in a giclee printer.
The Canon imagePROGRAF PRO-2000 is a 24-inch that uses a 12-channel integrated compact print head for exceptional print quality and speed.
Best Cameras For Photographing Art
By this point, you have an audience, and you feel confident people will be interested in purchasing prints of your artwork.
Before you start to research fine art printers, you will want to invest in a quality camera.
No matter how good your printer is, if your camera does not produce high-quality images, your prints will not be sellable.
The printer prints copies from a digital image. If the digital image is of low quality, the art print will be of low quality.
For more information on digital cameras, visit 4 Best Digital Cameras For Photographing Art.
Before Purchasing Fine Art Inkjet Printers
Ask these questions before you start looking for a printer:
- Why do you want to purchase a printer?
- How many prints will you be selling per month?
- Are you selling color prints of black and white prints?
- Are you going to sell multiple sized prints?
- Are you going to print on photo paper, cardstock, or canvas?
- How much are you going to sell your prints for?
You will be able to make the best decision for your art business once you have a clear vision of what your objectives are.
Final Thoughts On The Best Printers For Art Prints
The best printer for you will depend on your unique art business goals.
Go through all the features of each printer and take a few minutes to read some reviews before you decide.
All the printers listed above will produce high quality prints for artists, but each printer offers something a little different than the others.
If you are loking for the best printer for graphic designers you will need to research if the printer can handle all of the different types of prints you will be producing.
Here is a list of the best graphic designer printers:
- Canon PIXMA iP8720 Wireless Inkjet Photo Printer
- Brother – HL-L8360CDW Wireless Color Laser Printer
- Canon imageCLASS MF741Cdw Multifunction Color Laser Printer
If you art interested in selling prints online visit How To Sell Art Prints Online.
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