Don't get hung up on DPI. If you follow what we teach you in the course, you will get great results! It can be confusing but hopefully this will help you understand it a bit more.

Scanning/Digital Art DPI

Image capture DPI is different than printing DPI. When you capture your image (scan or create a digital canvas to work on in Procreate or another program), you want to do so at 1200 DPI at the least. This allows you to print much larger than the size of the original art. When you go to print, you will print at 300 DPI, that's because most printers only print at 300 DPI. But since you captured your image at a high DPI, that is what makes the difference in quality!

You should be safe with these guidelines but I always recommend test printing to make sure you are getting the quality you are looking for!

Camera DPI

DPI is completely different for cameras. Cameras can only capture at 300 DPI. A cameras sensor size (full frame or crop frame) and megapixels will determine the resolution of the image. Cameras with a full frame sensor + higher megapixels will give you a higher resolution photo. Always shoot in RAW to capture the largest image.

Check out Module 3! Every printshop/outsourcing website is going to have their own file requirements. Check with them and they will tell you what to do! You can find Giclee Today's instructions here. Check out the bonus lesson on flattening your files to free up space as well!

Go here and click on the "drivers" section and then click and download the 2nd option. DO NOT use the Silverfast option. 

Look for a "full frame" camera and at least 26 megapixels but if you can get one even higher (in the 40's) that's even better! We have used both a Canon 6D mark ii (26.2 megapixels) and a Nikon z 7ii (45.7 megapixels). Check out Module 4 for my Camera Update and the Bonus section for my Online Camera Rental Review.

* Make sure you rent/buy lenses that are compatible with the camera body you have/rent. A bit of googling/asking the rental company can help you figure it out! *

The canon rebel has a crop frame sensor, meaning the camera literally crops what you’re seeing thru the lens in half. If you stick the same exact lens you are using on your Rebel, onto a full frame camera (like the canon 6D) you’ll actually see twice as much of the painting in the frame when you look thru the lens.

So, with a crop frame camera you have to move a good bit further away to get the entire painting in view. With a full frame camera you can get much closer and still have the full painting in view. Being closer definitely helps get a crisper image and capture more detail. We noticed a night and day difference when we went from our Rebel to the 6D Mark ii even using the same exact 50mm lens we used on the Rebel.

I recommend shooting with a camera that has a full frame sensor with a high quality lens. A professional lens will give you a much better photo compared to the lens that comes with your camera. You will also want to use a 50mm or higher lens. If you are shooting in a small space, 50mm lens is best. Lenses such as the 35mm lens are wide angle lenses and will curve/warp the edges of your photo. 50mm and higher will have less of a "fish-eye" effect and produce a flatter shot of your artwork.

Digital downloads are commonly JPG's. However, I recommend going thru the same process when exporting your files as a TIFF in Lightroom and then once you have that saved, open the file in Photoshop to create your final print sizes and then save those as a JPG to send to your customer.

I prefer to edit in Lightroom as I find it easier and although you can print from Lightroom, I print multiple prints together to save on materials and find Photoshop easier to make the print sizes and layouts. 

My advice is to go into your local store that sells ready-made frames and take note of the most common ones sold. Find a small, medium, large and extra large. Start there and see what happens! Keep in mind, each frame size will have a different aspect ratio. Meaning, they will be cropped differently. For example, a 4x6 (2:3 aspect ratio) is longer and skinnier, where as an 8x10 (4:5 aspect ratio) is shorter and boxier. You may want to pick frame sizes based on what looks best with your art! Here is a handy chart (in inches) of print sizes/aspect ratios to help you get started:

Always save your files in TIFF format as they are the best file format. JPG's degrade in quality every time they are opened, edited and saved. However, if you already have your files saved as JPG's, you can try to re-save them as a TIFF file to keep the files from degrading in quality.

YES! Module 5 is a brand new addition to the course where I teach you how to remove the white background from your paintings.

I have a list of product print shops in the resource guide.

You will scan it in the same way I teach in the Scanning Module! To keep you scanner clean, I use this kit to clean my scanner glass!

Whenever my printer has acted a little strange, we have found one reason to be because we updated our iOS on our computer and that messed with the driver. When that happens, we uninstall the printer driver and reinstall it. You may also need to restart photoshop, or simply turn your printer and/or computer off and back on. If it still isn't working, turn off the printer and then unplug the printer for a few minutes.

Here is a video to walk you thru uninstalling and reinstalling the Printer Driver.

Always contact the tech support for your printer but those are some tips you could try.

The ink lasts a really long time!! After owning and printing regularly on the P6000 for 8 months, we have only replaced all the inks 1 time. When you get the printer, it comes with "starter" ink cartridges that are used up very quickly to fill the printers ink lines. Once those are empty, we replaced the cartridges with the larger inks and haven't had to replace them since, with the exception of the MK, LK and LLK. The black inks are used the most and will be replaced the most often. Pro tip: If you do not print on glossy paper, you do not need to replace the Photo Black ink and visa versa if you don't print on matte media with the Matte Black ink.

If you are getting weird colors when using Epson's exhibition matte canvas with your SC-P9000, be sure to select the printer profile "SC-9000_P7000_LLK CanvasMatte" instead of "SC-P9000-P7000_series_LLKExhibitionCanvasMatte MK_v1" profile. This will save you TONS of time and frustration with color correcting! This trick may not be true for ALL P9000's but we have confirmed it fixed the color issues for our P9000 and another students as well!

Below are screenshots of my printer settings for my Epson Surecolor P6000: 

My friend, Jessica Peddicord, has graciously shared the settings she uses on her Epson Surecolor P800! She also made the Photoshop artboard the same size as the sheet paper. For example: she printed an 11x14 print on a 11x17 sheet of paper. So she made the artboard in Photoshop 11x17 inches.

The prints usually come out of the printer pretty dry. We usually wait just a few minutes to cut the prints after we print them just in case. Here in Arizona the ink dries extremely fast but you might have slower dry times in more humid parts of the country.

First, contact Epson/Your-Printer-Brand’s support for professional advice. We aren’t Epson or printer experts and any advice is based off of our personal experience. With that said, we have been told by professional printers we can get away with leaving our printer (turned on) for a few weeks. But our practice is to do a nozzle check every day we’re home to lower the risk of a nozzle clog. Even with printing often and doing nozzle checks daily we see changes in the test patterns that require a head clean.

The P8000 and P9000 are both 44" and the P6000 and P7000 are both 24". But the difference between the 2 different versions is that the P7000 and P9000 have more ink colors (orange and green) and have a bit of a wider color gamut. You cannot go wrong with either. My printer at the time this course was recorded was the P6000 and did a superb job. I do plan on upgrading to the P9000 (44") to print larger and get a bit of a wider color range, but I do not think the wider color range it will be noticeably different. 

I purchased the Standard version.

From Epson's website: The Standard Edition uses the standard 11 color ink cartridges. The Commercial Edition uses a Violet (V) cartridge in place of the Light Light Black (LLK) ink cartridge. For this reason, the Commercial Edition is not meant to be used with photo applications.

Large format printers do not like sitting idle, as it can lead to clogging, but sometimes you cannot help it if you are out of town or not printing regularly. If you are able, do a nozzle check daily to a) make sure there are no clogs that need to be cleared and b) to keep things moving if you are not printing that day.

If you live in a dry climate or your printer will be sitting idle for a while, you may want to get what is called a Dampit - a stringed instrument humidifier and soak it in distilled water (very important that it is distilled!!), wring it out and wipe it off and place inside your printer while the printer is OFF (very important that the printer is off) and close the lid. This will help keep the printer head from drying out and clogging. Make sure you take the Dampit out before you print again or you may damage your printer!! Disclaimer: We are not liable for you damaging your printer. This is just advice that we received from an Epson employee and are passing along as a tip! You are liable for your own printer and operation.

This is where you need to get to know your printers habits. We know that our printer prints the width perfectly but the length can be a little short by about 1/8th of an inch or so depending on the size of the print. This may not be the case on all printers but one of those nuances you’ll have to learn about your equipment. For a situation like the print being a little smaller, we’ve experimented with making the print files a little larger than the size we want to print until we found the magic number (for an 8x10, I actually make the art 8.05x10.05 in Photoshop). You can always cut down a print that’s a little too large but you can’t add to a print that is too small, so we advise to err on the side of too large.

Yes! Our printer and others mentioned in the course take sheet paper. We have personally only used roll paper but you can use sheets. Make sure to consult your printer manual and your printer’s tech support for professional advice on using your printer.

A tip I learned from a friendly Epson technician is that when you print full bleed on your printer you may need to change out the little ink pads that are in your printer, from time to time. The reason why is when the print head is printing full bleed, it sprays over the edge to get all the way to the edge so the ink pads catch the excess ink. You need to change out the 2 ink pads on the edge of the paper. I have attached a video of me changing out one on my Epson Printer Surecolor P6000. You can buy replacement pads here. 

Watch video here.

We bought the tables and shelves from Uline.