Seven Principles for Quality Art Reproduction

1. Strong Original Artwork
2. Excellent Capture
3. Professional Colour Management
4. The Right Choice of Substrate
5. The Right Choice of Equipment for Printing
6. Excellence in Packaging
7. The Right Price

Can you print anything you paint? Of course, but the question is - should you? The choice of the artwork you reproduce needs to start with a solid strength. All of the elements that make a good painting should be present – perspective, interest, focus, drama and emotion. Secondly, the reason to reproduce a painting is primarily because there is a demand for the image and your original work would be too expensive for many of the potential customers.

1. Make sure you start with a top quality, high resolution file that will print at the size you want to reproduce. To do that you must ensure that the image is captured by a digital camera or high-end camera with a digital scanning back at high resolution, scanned by a professional production house, or photographed on to transparency professionally and then scanned appropriately.
2. Colour management, correction and file preparation also require the professional touch. Remember – get this right once and you can reproduce the image many times effectively and accurately.
3. Choose the right media to print your work on. Whether that be paper, canvas, silk, polyester or vinyl – what you intend for the end result is the driver for the type of substrate you reproduce the work on. A good marriage of file and substrate is the only way to achieve superior results.
4. Choosing the right equipment to print the work is another key principle. There are many quality printing machines, but some have specific purposes such as signs and banners – and others are dedicated to fine art – sometimes the only difference is the type of ink they use – but you must also marry your equipment to the type of reproduction that is your final result.
5. Packaging your reproduction before sale can involve many things, including stretching the canvas, adding a frame, or mats to the paper, mounting, sewing or taping a banner and adding grommets for hanging – again the end result dictates the type of packaging required.
6. Price is the final principle. Have you researched the market – do you know what work like yours – reproduced as you intend - is selling for? Do you know your costs and what you can afford to price the work at? Do you have sufficient mark-up to cover all costs and a possible distributor or sales persons commission?

While this article does not intend to convey all of the details around each of these seven principles, it is intended to help you focus on the key elements that make a reproduction process successful.