How to Set Up Your Files for Professional Digital Printing (And Why It Matters)

Digital work optimized for printing.

You've finished a piece you're proud of. Now you want prints. Before you send anything to a print studio, there are a few things worth getting right on the file side — because the quality of your print is only as good as the file you start with. This isn't complicated stuff, but it does matter, and most artists don't find out they got it wrong until they're holding a print that looks nothing like their screen.

Here's what to know before you hit send.

File Format

Save your print file as a TIFF. Not a JPEG, not a PNG — a TIFF. JPEGs compress your image every time you save them, which slowly degrades quality in ways that aren't always obvious on screen but show up in print. TIFFs are lossless, meaning the file keeps all its data intact. If your software won't export TIFF, a high-quality PDF works too.

Keep your layered working file separate. What you send to a print studio should be a flattened, full-resolution export — not your working Photoshop or Procreate file with adjustment layers still active.

Digital art work printed for selling.

Color Mode: RGB vs. CMYK

This is the one that trips people up most often.

Your screen displays color in RGB (red, green, blue). Most professional inkjet printers — including the Canon imagePROGRAF we use at Fine Ink Printing — also print in RGB, not CMYK. CMYK is for offset printing (think: commercial magazines, business cards, mass-production). If you convert your file to CMYK before sending it to a giclée print studio, you may actually be limiting your color range unnecessarily.

Send your file in RGB unless your print studio specifically asks for something different. And if you're not sure, ask before converting — converting back and forth between color modes can shift your colors in ways that are hard to undo.

One more thing: make sure your color profile is embedded in the file. sRGB is the safe standard. Adobe RGB (1998) captures a wider gamut and is worth using if your work has a lot of saturated blues and greens. Just make sure the profile is embedded, not just assigned — otherwise your studio can't guarantee an accurate color match.

Resolution

Print resolution is measured in PPI (pixels per inch). The standard for quality fine art printing is 300 PPI at the final print size. This is where a lot of digital artists run into trouble — they create at 72 PPI (screen resolution) and then try to scale it up for print. It doesn't work. Scaling up a low-res file just makes the pixels bigger, not more detailed.

The fix is to set your canvas to 300 PPI from the start, at the size you intend to print. If you're working in Procreate, this means planning ahead — Procreate files can't be upsized without quality loss. If you're in Photoshop or Illustrator, you have more flexibility.

A useful rule of thumb: if your final print is 8x10 inches at 300 PPI, your file should be at least 2400 x 3000 pixels. Scale up from there for larger sizes.

For very large prints (24" and up), 150–200 PPI can still look excellent when viewed at a normal distance. If you're unsure whether your file is large enough for the size you want, send it over and we'll take a look before printing anything.

Sizing and Bleed

Know your print size before you export. If you want a 12x16 print, your file should be exactly 12x16 (plus bleed if it's a full-bleed print — typically an extra 0.125" on each side).

If you're printing with a white border, size the canvas to the image size, not the paper size. A 12x16 image on 13x19 paper means your file should be set up at 12x16 and we'll position it on the sheet — or you can build the border into the file itself. Either works, but be explicit about what you're expecting.

Don't send a file sized at 72 PPI and note "please print this at 18x24." That's asking us to guess at what you want, and guessing leads to wasted paper and reprints.

Why Proofing Matters

A proof is a test print — usually a small section of your image, or a reduced-size version — made before your full print run. It's the step that catches problems you can't see on a monitor.

Screens lie. Even a well-calibrated monitor shows color differently than pigment ink on paper. Shadows that look rich on screen can print muddy. Bright cyans can go flat. That neon orange you love might shift warmer than expected on matte paper versus gloss.

Proofing also catches resolution issues, color profile mismatches, and anything weird that happened during export. It's almost always cheaper to proof than to reprint a full-size piece after something goes wrong.

At Fine Ink Printing, proofing is part of the process — we don't hand you a finished print and hope for the best. Before any order is finalized, we share a proof so you can approve color and quality. If something's off, we dial it in before wasting materials.

If you're printing somewhere that doesn't offer proofing, ask about it. A studio that skips that step is cutting corners.

Quick Reference Checklist

Getting your file right before you print isn't about being precious — it's about making sure the work you put into a piece actually shows up on paper. If you have questions about your specific file, we're happy to take a look before the appointment. Reach out at kate@fineinkprinting.com or book directly here.