How do I convert my artwork into an electronic format suitable for printing?

The best way to have your original artwork reproduced is to send it to Picture Salon to be scanned or photographed. We can guarantee that your original art will be faithfully reproduced and color correct.

However, if you cannot ship your artwork or are reluctant to do so, here are your other two options.

Scan Your Artwork: Ideal for watercolors, drawings, fixed pastels and smaller oil and acrylic paintings (up to 20 x24 in size)

Try to find a reprographics company in your local yellow pages that can scan it for you. Most scanners can accept media (paper) that is the thickness of mat board. So, if you are reproducing a drawing, watercolor or pastel, it should be possible to get high quality scan at a reasonable cost. Unfortunately, scanners cannot accept stretched canvas unless the local company uses a Cruse scanner. We always recommend that you have your artwork scanned at the original size at 300 dpi (or dots per inch).

Photograph Your Artwork: More suitable for unfixed pastel drawings or for larger paintings 2' x 3' and up.

If you are a painter (oil/acrylic) or pastel artist and you would like to reproduce your art as a giclée, you will either need to have a professional photographer take a picture, take a picture yourself or send it to us to photograph.

If you decide to try taking a picture with your digital camera, please keep in mind the following points:

• Make sure your camera is set to its’ highest resolution.
• Light your art as evenly as possible. If you are shooting outside, make sure it is not in direct sunlight.
• Make sure the camera lens is parallel to the surface of the artwork.
• “Bracket” or take different exposures.

The more megapixels the camera has, the better the result. We have seen some pretty good pictures recently, but the quality of a consumer digital camera can never beat having it done professionally. So, if you are looking for the highest quality, we recommend sending it to us or using a local photographer who has done this sort of work before.