How to Sell Prints as an Artist: A Practical Guide to Getting Started

So you've created work you're proud of and you're ready to turn it into prints. Maybe you've seen other artists selling them at markets, in local shops, or online, and you're wondering how to do the same. The good news is that selling prints is one of the most accessible ways to generate income as an artist. The process is more straightforward than it might seem — but getting it right from the beginning makes all the difference.

Here's a practical, honest guide to how to sell prints as an artist, from preparing your files to finding the right places to sell.

Step One: Start With a High-Quality File

Before anything else, your print is only ever going to be as good as the file it comes from. This is the step most artists underestimate, and it's where the process most commonly goes wrong.

If your original artwork is physical — a painting, drawing, watercolor, mixed media piece — it needs to be digitized through either professional scanning or photography. A high-resolution, color-accurate file is the foundation everything else is built on. Without it, your prints will look soft, off-color, or flat compared to the original — and that's a hard thing to recover from once a customer has seen your work in person and then received a print that doesn't match.

What makes a file print-ready:

• Minimum 300 PPI at the intended print size

• Correct color profile (Adobe RGB for fine art printing)

• Saved as a TIFF or high-quality file format

• Captured under calibrated, even lighting with no color cast

If you're not sure whether your file meets these standards, the safest and most cost-effective move is to have it captured professionally. At Fine Ink Printing, a professional art capture starts at $50 and includes editing, proofing, and a print-ready file you own and can use for any future print orders. For most artists, that's a much better investment than reprinting after discovering a quality problem.

Step Two: Choose the Right Printer and Paper

Not all printing is equal. There's a significant difference between a print run at a big box copy shop and fine art archival printing on quality media. For work you're asking collectors and customers to pay for, archival quality matters — both for the longevity of the print and for the perception of value.

Look for a printer who uses archival pigment inks and offers a range of fine art papers. The paper you choose affects the look and feel of the final print dramatically. A matte cotton rag paper reads very differently from a glossy photo paper or a textured fine art surface — and the right choice depends entirely on your work.

At Fine Ink Printing, we offer several media options specifically selected for fine art reproduction, including archival matte, canvas, and textured surfaces. If you're not sure what's right for your work, that's a conversation worth having before you commit to a print run.

Step Three: Price Your Prints Correctly

Pricing is where many artists get stuck — either undervaluing their work out of uncertainty, or pricing inconsistently across sizes and formats. Having a system makes this much easier.

The most common approach for pricing art prints is a square inch formula: multiply the width by the height of the print, then multiply by a dollar amount that reflects your career stage, the cost of materials, and the quality of the print. For emerging artists, a multiplier somewhere between $0.50 and $2.00 per square inch is a reasonable starting point for originals, with prints typically priced lower to reflect that they're reproductions rather than one-of-a-kind pieces.

A useful free resource for working through this is the art pricing calculator from PxP Contemporary, which walks you through several different pricing formulas and helps you find a number that makes sense for where you are in your career.

A few principles worth keeping in mind when pricing prints:

• Price consistently across sizes so buyers can understand your logic

• Factor in your printing cost, packaging, and any platform or commission fees before setting a retail price

• Don't underprice to the point where selling more prints actually costs you money

• Leave room to offer occasional discounts without going below your cost

  
  

Step Four: Find the Right Places to Sell

Once you have quality prints and a pricing structure, the question becomes where to sell them. The answer depends on your goals — local community building, online reach, or both.

Local options

Coffee shops and small businesses — many independently owned coffee shops, boutiques, and local businesses are actively looking for local art to display and sell on consignment. This gets your work in front of people who are already in your community and builds name recognition without requiring you to be present. Reach out directly with a small portfolio of your work and a proposed consignment arrangement — typically the business takes 20-40% of each sale.

Local art collectives and community organizations — connecting with artist communities in your area opens up group exhibitions, pop-up markets, and collaborative opportunities that put your work in front of engaged, art-interested audiences. In Fort Collins, Petrichor Collective is a great example of this kind of community — a collaborative, open-minded creative space that supports local artists through events and shared projects. Getting involved in communities like this builds relationships that often lead to sales, referrals, and opportunities you wouldn't find on your own.

Art markets and maker fairs — selling in person lets customers see the quality of your prints firsthand and have a real conversation with you about your work. This is often where first-time print buyers get comfortable enough to make a purchase.

Online options

Your own website — if you're selling prints regularly, having a simple shop on your own site gives you full control over pricing, presentation, and customer relationships. Squarespace, which many artists already use for portfolios, has e-commerce built in.

Etsy — still one of the most trafficked platforms for art prints, especially for buyers who are actively searching for original artwork and prints by independent artists.

Instagram — less of a direct sales channel and more of a discovery tool, but a consistent presence that shows your work and process builds an audience that converts to buyers over time.

A Note on Print Quality as a Selling Tool

One thing experienced print sellers understand is that the quality of the print itself is part of the product. When a customer opens a package and holds a beautifully printed, archival-quality piece on fine art paper, that experience shapes how they feel about the purchase and whether they tell other people about it.

Cutting corners on print quality to save a few dollars per print is one of the most common and costly mistakes artists make when they're starting out. Your reputation as an artist is built print by print.

If you're based in Northern Colorado and ready to take your first step toward selling prints — or if you want to talk through the process before committing to anything — I'd love to hear from you.

Get in touch with Fine Ink Printing here.

Kate Wullink is an art reproduction specialist and graphic designer based in Fort Collins, CO. Fine Ink Printing offers fine art scanning, printing, and artist mockup services by appointment.