Printing Tips
Digital, Digital Getdown
Some Handy Tips for Printing Your Poem from Me and N*SYNC
PAPER
Whether you’re printing at home/your office or sending off to a printer, good paper makes a huge difference in terms of how high quality it looks.
- Type: Try a matte paper that’s heavier like cardstock (at least 80 lb to 110
- Color: Go for a “natural white” or neutral white over cool white.
SIZING
- Your purchase included a digital pdf file of the poem in 1 of 3 sizes (5X7, 8X10, 11X14). The size you purchase totally depends on your frame, matting, and how you want it to look! For example, here is “She’s a Bit Much” in the same frame (an 8X10 matted opening)—on the left is the 5X7 and on the right is the 8X10.
- If you’re printing at home/office, you can also play with zoom and scale to get it to look exactly how you want, based on your style and frame.
PRINTERS
When searching for a local or online printer I learned that a good tip is to search for “Giclee Printing”, that term will often pull up printers that offer multiple fine art paper options. Ooh la la!
Printers that do mainly photographic prints, aren’t gonna be the best here because they want jpegs and also typically print on photo paper with a sheen. This includes places like Walgreens, Costco, Walmart (or any big box photo centers) Snapfish, Shutterly, etc. Always look to see the paper specifications before you print. Some people have converted the pdfs into jpegs for convenience sake—follow your heart!
I’ve had a lot of luck at Fedex/Kinkos—you can email them the pdf or go in person and test print with different card stocks. I did this for all of my wedding suite printables.
Here are a few recs I found online from digital art sellers:
- Great: OfficeMax, Printful.com, Vistaprint.com
- Top Notch: local fine art printers, Finerworks.com, Gicleetoday.com, Printsgicleeshop.com