Image courtesy MS stock images.
Size Matters
My husband and partner Maynard prints for a lot of artists and photographers. I've been with Maynard for six years now, and I see one dilemma constantly with artists and photographers: understanding how ratios impact the size options for printing a piece of work.
If you create 2D works of art, regardless of medium, at some point you will probably want to print/reproduce your work for interested clients. Those who are not photographers will need to either photograph their own works, or have a photographer shoot that piece of 2D art so it can then be reproduced.
Now you have your image file, and it's time to ask a printer to print it for you. What size do you pick?
Entering a New Dimension
Before you can pick the print size you want, you need to understand the image dimension of the art work. If you are a 2D artist, you need to know the size of the original work.
*Example 1: An original acrylic painting is on 16" x 20" canvas. Using elementary school math, and doing ratios and fractions, a 16" x 20" piece of artwork breaks down to a 4x5 ratio. Take 4x5, multiply that by 4, you get 16x20. Or, take 4x5, multiply that by 2x, and you get 8x10.
*Example 2: Take a 2D piece of artwork that was done on a 20" x 30" medium, and now you have a different ratio. It's a 2x3 ratio, and to get it a 20" x 30" print, you'd multiply by 10x. Optionally, you could create 4" x 6" prints (2x), or 6" x 9" (3x), or 12" x 18" (6x).
*Example 3: Someone will send a 18" x 18" image file, and ask for a 16" x 20" print. Mathematically, this is impossible. Why? 18" x 18" is really a 1x1 ratio (18x), and you are asking for a print that is a 4x5 ratio. The only way to make this happen is to crop your image file and create the 4x5 ratio.
What this means is you cannot take a piece of artwork at one ratio, and mathematically create a print with a size outside of the actual ratio, such as 8" x 11", 11" x 14" or 20" x 30". Mathematically it is impossible, and instead, the image file has to be cropped to achieve such a dimension of your print.
The RAW Truth
Photographers, same thing for you. The most common issue we see is a photographer will send a 13" x 19" image file, and ask for 16" x 20" or 20" x 30" prints. It's impossible to create a print as such without cropping the image. We understand why this request happens; RAW image files out of camera are sized at 13" x 19". Photographers who aren't conscientious of dimensions will sometimes edit that file, keeping it the same dimensions, and not realize they've created a problem later when they want a print. Photographers, be purposeful when editing and sizing your photography. Make it 1x1, 2x3, 4x5, or even custom sizes such as 11" x17", but just understand whatever crop you have on that image, impacts the print size options you have available to you.
Printing is an Art Form
In today's world of mass production of images and sharing them online, especially via social media, it's easy to overlook the basics when it's time print your artwork for customers. Printing used to be the only way you could see art, and now most art is first seen digitally. There are other issues that impact printing your work, but sizing is the first critical step. You want the world to see your work the way it was intended, and we want to help you easily achieve that goal. It starts by understanding your image's size dimensions.
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