How to Create & Print From Home
- 1). Open your favorite software design program and choose a background, color size and shape. This will become your canvas for your new creation. Please note that the background should be at a resolution of at least 200 pixels per inch and the shape of the background should take into account what your final product will be. For example, if you are making greeting cards, then a 5-inch by 7-inch format is a good choice, but you will have to decide on a vertical or horizontal orientation.
- 2). Create your central piece of art, convert the image to digital form (if necessary) and paste the image onto the background. The artwork can be made in a wide variety of ways. It might be a photograph from a digital camera, a graphic design created in Photoshop or a real-life watercolor that is scanned and saved at a high resolution. When the reproduction is placed against the original background, the actual difference in the size of both components creates a simple, functional border.
- 3). Add text to the design. This can done in the border area of the background or you can boldly place important information across the face of the image. Choose the size, color and font style so that the words stand out against the border area or within the main image.
- 4). Save at product at a high resolution. If you are also sending out the image to online websites, make a second copy at Web resolution, which is 72 pixels per inch.
- 5). Print the image with archival inks and paper. You can use either an inkjet printer or a more sophisticated Iris printer. Also, you may want to pay special attention to the size limitations of your printer. Designing a large poster for a printing system that only prints in 8 by 10 or smaller is something for home printers to avoid.
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