I’m wondering about the sizes of prints offered – I have an 8Mp camera which produces a pic with pixel dimensions of 3504×2336.
at 200 DPI this gives us a print of 17.52 × 11.68″
so clearly if someone purchases a print larger than this – say 16×24 , we’re stuck with the issue that either it needs to be printed at a lower DPI (Almost there at 150DPI – 23.36×15.57″) or else the files are up-sampled through interpolation, which is never an ideal solution.
one of my works which has sold a couple of copies is only 1280×1280 so while a 10×10 will be OK, any further up-sampling is going to degrade the image. Is this a concern?
perhaps some guidelines on resolution would be good, as well the option to only sell smaller versions of files which are unavoidably smaller than ideal?
David Sundstrom
Good idea an option to only sell smaller works would be great. Perhaps also smaller print sizes as well?
James Pierce
In the next update of the site the upload process will only allow images to be made avaliable for sale at suitable sizes (basically 200dpi, though we can allow a bit lower at the largest sizes because people view the images from futher back).
Before production and deliver, every image is both inspected as a file before printing and after printing to make sure it looks top notch. Minor colour correction and gentle sharpening will be applied if required. If there is a problem with a file being too small, we come back to the artist to try and get a bigger version. At the end of the day though if its not going to look good then we will either arrange with the buyer to get a smaller print, choose another image or simply not make a print.
On the guidelines, the upload process will be updated with a bunch more information around this as well as the automated checks in the next release. In summary though upload the highest resolution JPG version of your files and we will take care of the rest.
Rhys Allen
awesome James, thanks for the quick response
Appeciate the level of care and effort you guys are putting into this – very encouraging!
Juilee Pryor
I am also wondering about sizing etc. Virtually all the images I upload will be scans from analouge negatives. Which means they can be rescanned and printed as big as wall if anyone wants. Can this be noted on the portfolio site? Small prints are great but big prints are really great.
JuileeP
James Pierce
JuileeP,
We really want you to upload your best work at the highest resolution possible – having to come back to an artist to get a rescan to fulfill a big order is really hard – What if someone is out of contact, or traveling etc… That’s a lost order for the artist.
I’m with you, nothing but the biggest size for me !
Juilee Pryor
Hey James,
thanks for the swift response. OK you want high res scans baby they are on their way. I’ve been looking through the back catalouge with view to uploading more interesting images and have come across some lovely shots of the harbour, bridge, oprey house etc taken with a small plastic panoramic camera (plastic lens, very low tech with a final output still higher than digital). So this particular collection has a present scanned res of 2720 dpi W 20.32 cm and H 7.46. cm They would be just scrummy yummy as big big panoramas. Originally scanned as BMPs they can be easily converted to jpeg but as that is so lossy I tend to go for tiff or bmp files. Also I have now upgraded the film scanner to a 7200dpi model which can produce HUGE files (over a gig) for really big high quality output. So the question now is …..can you handle that print wise?
How about I upload one or two and you tell me what you think?
cheers JuileeP
James Pierce
JPG is the best final file format for us – Yes there is some compression, but you really don’t see it unless the file is opened and saved many times. We are printing on a Durst Theta which is about as good as it gets … laser enlarged at 400dpi.
If your files are more than say 20MB as JPGs, take a look at the compression, and file size … There is obviously no point uploading 25,000 pixel wide files, or quailty 12 JPGs out of Photoshop – It’s just a long slow upload for you, and a big file for us to store, with no advantage when printing.
Personally I’m putting up files between 4000 and 7000 pixels wide at quailty 7 – They look amazing out of the printer and the files are between 5 and 15MB.
Juilee Pryor
Thanks James,
this is really helpful information. Actually being able to ask questions about stuff in gereral is a good thing. Your Durst Printer sounds great. I am looking to buy a really good A3+ printer for myself and would love to get some info from the people in the know……such as yourself or other members of the Redbubble community. Anyone got any opinons on the Epsom Stylus R2400 for example?
JuileeP
James Pierce
I realise this will sound a bit biased, but I’ve owned a couple of large format Epsons myself. Good quailty, but slow and expensive to run and lots of fiddle to get good colour profiles working for different paper. Long before RedBubble existed I gave up and went back to sending everything out to big commerical labs to get work done… They key is to work with a really good printer – the guys driving the RedBubble printer are the best I know !
So personally, I’m doing all my printing through RedBubble now. You can upload and buy your own work really easily. Just do it !
theurbannexus
That was helpful James (thanks Rhys for raising it). Not coming from an artistic or creative background I have little idea of what DPI is appropriate for printing and selling. AFAIK my prints export as 72 DPI from aperture – does this turn out badly when printed?