Do people get hardcopy prints of their artwork or is it only pure electronic?

[William Overington]

A mini-survey, just out of interest please.

Do people get hardcopies of their artwork or is it only pure electronic?

The thing that has really encouraged me to try to produce artwork using Affinity Designer is that I can get good quality hardcopy prints.

I do not have a printer myself. I get my hardcopy prints, without leaving my home, by using web-based facilities and then the hardcopy print is delivered to me by the Royal Mail postal service. I get frames delivered with my grocery order from the supermarket. So i now have a small collection of framed hardcopy prints of my original artwork that I have generated, usually output from Affinity Publisher, though the first two were output from PagePlus X7. One was the glyphs of a font that I produced many years ago, the other a large size print of one glyph from a font that I generated using an interactive art work, The Alphabet Synthesis Machine, in 2002, so, in fact, just text in a text frame for each of them.

The prints that i can get that way are higher quality than I could produce at home using a typical home printer.

So I am wondering if other people using Affinity Designer, and indeed other Affinity products, get hardcopy prints,wihether by using a printer of their own, or from a print shop, or from an online facility, or whatever?

Also, are people producing artwork as stand-alone artwork or for inclusion in a document?

For example, most of the artwork that I produce is stand-alone, though when I produce hardcopy as a custom greetings card then the greetings card has the artwork on the front and a title, a descriprion, my name and the month and year as text where the custom greeting would normally go.

However, sometimes I have produced artwork using Affinity Designer for use in a pure electronc pubklication, such as these pixcture of the two sides of a design for a tote bag in a story.

 

 

I am hoping to get such a tote bag made, even if just as a one-off though possibly get two, one to use and one so store away in new condition, but thus far I have only found one-sided custom bags in a one-off quantity.

William

 

[RichardMH]

I use Photo and print at home on a Canon PRO-300. Its professional quality but only prints up to A3+. Anything bigger is off to a professional printer (who fortunately is 10 minutes down the road so no postage).

[Washishu]

Each and all of those things depending on the job and what I want to use it for. A 'just for fun' or 'playin' around' piece would probably exist only in digital form. Some things for personal use I print on my desktop printer. Some things—eg a poster for an exhibition I had—go to a print shop.

[BarKeegan]

I’ve had a few of my character designs printed in the past, and if you find a really good giclée printer, it can be well worth it.

[BarKeegan]

What I’d really like to get, is a pair of Bucketfeet shoes through Threadless

[VectorVonDoom]

I have done, upload the TIFF and get someone else to do it. Big printers aren't cheap and then paper and ink isn't cheap either so if a print is screwed up I prefer someone else to do that at their own expense rather than mine. You can also go as large as I want, I'm not going to be buying a printer that manages A0. The prices aren't bad depending where go and the turn around is quick enough. If you sell your prints then some will post it on to the customer so no real work for you unless you're signing/numbering.

It depends if you value you artwork whether cheapo frames are a good idea. They probably/definitely aren't going to be acid free (mount etc) or provide UV protection. But if it's your work it's cheaper having it reprinted when it fades as posh framing isn't cheap. However posh glass does make a big difference, UV or especially museum quality. 

I've no idea about non-paper stuff, I've not tried.

[William Overington]

13 hours ago, VectorVonDoom said:

It depends if you value you artwork whether cheapo frames are a good idea. They probably/definitely aren't going to be acid free (mount etc) or provide UV protection. But if it's your work it's cheaper having it reprinted when it fades as posh framing isn't cheap. However posh glass does make a big difference, UV or especially museum quality. 

That is interesting, I had not thought about a possible issue in relation to the nature of the paper used to produce the mount. However, I had known, in another context of the existence of Solander boxes for document conservation, so there we are.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solander_box

As it happens the frames that I use are the following.

https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/308622478

They are intended for photographs.

As it happens, for what I have produced thus far using these frames, (and with a earlier design of frames of a similar design yet thicker overall and with a less convenient to use form of locking furniture (I don't know the proper nomenclature, I just used that to convey the idea) on the rear)) the printed item does not actually touch the mount.

This is because the mount is designed for a 10 inch by 8 inch photograph and I am framing customized one-off 7 inch by 5 inch greetings cards sent to myself.

This does mean that the surface of the card is in direct contact with the clear acrylic window (is that the corrrect term?) of the frame. Does that present issues?

I have preferred acrylic to glass on the basis of safety. However, your comments about glass are making me wonder.

The greetings cards are customized cards produced using the following templates.

https://www.papier.com/landscape-photo-313

https://www.papier.com/portrait-photo-315

Other templates are available, those two are both full field, some have plain borders, some have preset artwork alongside the customer-supplied image(s).

https://www.papier.com/photos/photo-cards/

I place my own artwork on the front and where the greetng goes I delete everything there and add, often using the Garamond font, the title, a description, my name and the date.

Some readers may have already looked at the following thread in this forum.

 Artwork for greetings cards

The business also does custom prints using archival ink and framed. These, entirely reasonably, cost more. Basically I have been producing the customized greetings cards as I learn to use Affinity Designer. A longer term goal is to try to produce something good then buy a framed print that has been printed uaing archival ink.

What I am doing is pushing the envelope with what are marketed as photo greetings cards to send to someone else, but as the printing is not acrually of a photograph but of a jpg file containing an encoded image of a photograph, a jpg of artwork exported from Affinity Designer produces good results, even though it is not actually a photograph. The staff at the business are happy for me to do this and have advised me on how to do this.

I have been looking up about acid-free mounts.

13 hours ago, VectorVonDoom said:

It depends if you value you artwork whether cheapo frames are a good idea.

Well, I do value my artwork, I have found great pleasure in having hardcopy printings of what I had until a little over a year ago had in pure electronic form.

I have no knowledge at present as to how to distinguish between what you term "cheapo frames" and, well, art gallery quality frames.

I do appreciate that the hardcopy prints of the greetings cards, while of far better quality than what I could get on a typical (budget price) printer attached to my home computer, are not prints in the same category as art prints, they are not purported to be so.

William

 

 

[VectorVonDoom]

Once you start going for a nice frame, acid free mount etc and posh glass framing runs in to the hundreds of pounds for poster size. Then there’s multiple mounts, fancy frames… that add even more.  Depends what you’re framing, for example you don’t want a limited edition poster fading quickly from uv or being ruined by the card acids. But it does also depend on your pocket. Of course if you do enough and you’re handy then you can save money by doing it yourself. like most things the initial outlay isn’t worth it for one or two though.

[RichardMH]

I recycle frames from the charity shops. Only real outlays are a mat cutter and mat board.

[William Overington]

Thank you both, I had not noticed your replies until a few minutes ago.

On 4/9/2022 at 1:26 AM, RichardMH said:

I recycle frames from the charity shops. Only real outlays are a mat cutter and mat board.

What happens to what was originally in the frames please?

What sort of things were in the frames?

William

 

[RichardMH]

5 hours ago, William Overington said:

Thank you both, I had not noticed your replies until a few minutes ago.

What happens to what was originally in the frames please?

What sort of things were in the frames?

William

 

Most of the time I throw them out. Usually its reproductions, cheap prints or amateur paintings.