Whether you are selling your art online or want to create a quality backup of an original print, a photograph isn’t the way to go. A quality digital scan may be enough, but even better is taking good quality scans and then making image adjustments to create a digital asset that can be reused multiple times, for as long as you have the file on your device or backed up to the cloud.
When artists master the scanning and editing processes of digital assets, they are essentially creating art reproduction files capable of producing repeated sales for the life of the file.
The key to creating quality art reproduction files is capturing as many details of the original piece as possible. For paintings, drawings, sketches, and prints, the best way to do that is with a quality flatbed scanner. For the most part, a decent All-in-One home printer has the capability required, which is 300 dpi (dots per inch) or higher.
The Process of Reproducing Artwork Starts with the Scan
Scanning should be as straightforward as placing your file on the flatbed scanner and pressing a button. Rarely is the first attempt the best it could be though. Dust speckles, smudges or misalignment can have an impact on the output. Take multiple scans and inspect each of them for imperfections.
Scanning Tips to Keep in Mind
- Check your default resolution is at the highest. This is usually 300 dpi or a higher resolution. Some scanners default to 72 dpi which can result in pixelation of prints. It may look good on the screen, but when printed, the small squares can show. Use 300 dpi resolution at minimum.
- Check that colour mode is enabled and that it’s the right type. Depending on your scanner, you may have a choice of RGB or CYMK colour mode. CYMK is the choice to use for files intended to be printed and RGB for digital viewing only.
- Clean the scanner glass plates before scanning to remove any smudges, dust particles, or other debris as anything on the glass will show on the scanned image. When wiping the glass, use a microfiber cloth to ensure the glass doesn’t get scratched, which can happen with rougher materials such as kitchen roll.
- If you are scanning old prints that may have dust on them, give them a wipe over with a microfiber cloth too, or alternatively, a can of compressed air can be used to blow away dust and loose debris from the surface.
Editing Scan Files to Improve the Quality of Prints
A quality scan doesn’t necessarily mean you will get a good quality print of the scan. There are differences between how a digital file is viewed on screen and how it prints out on paper. Digital screens use the RGB (Red, Green, Blue) colour profile but printers use a combination of pigments to create colour variations: Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Key (CYMK colour profile), which is why you should check your scanner settings to make sure that you have the correct colour profile selected. CYMK is for prints. RGB is for digital files such as those used with a digital photo frame.
The Most Basic Edits Needed for Quality Scans Include:
Edge removal: It’s not unusual for the edges of paper to show as a hard dark line around the edges of your print. Most photo editing programs have a pre-set program to remove outer edges.
Image resize: It’s not always going to be the case that you need to resize your image. Standard image sizes for photographs are 6” x 4”, 7” x 5”, and 8” x 10”. For large scale prints, those can be 11” x 14”, 16” x 20” or larger. If you have a smaller flatbed scanner, such as 8.5” by 11”, it may be that you need to scan different areas then use a software program to piece together multiple smaller sized images. For artists recreating large scale prints for digital sales, it’s usually best to scan three or more images and then use photo editing software to merge the images together while avoiding joining lines showing through on the print.
Blemish removal: No matter how hard you try, scans usually capture some blemishes. It may be accidental or just the light of the scanner capturing more details than you can see when you look at the image. Most photo editing provides a blur tool that can help soften imperfections or in the case of Photoshop, the Spot Healing Brush is often enough for minor imperfections.
The one thing to remember when scanning images is that scanners use a lot of artificial light to capture as many details as possible. In most cases, they capture more than the eye can see, which is why edits are almost always needed to improve the print quality of scanned images.