printing quality

[Ddot]

Hi. I am new and I am glad to be here. My Question. I have sent drawings to printed at a couple different locations and the product usually not that good. I am on a Samsung S6lite Tablet. Is this the reason or am I unaware of a setting? I just do not know and any insight would help. Thank you

[markw]

Hello Ddot and welcome to the ArtRage forums :)
Well, it may well be a problem with creating them on the Galaxy unfortunately.
Is your disappointment with print definition or colour fidelity?

If it’s definition, I believe the max canvas size the Android version of AR can create is 2048x2048pxels.
Now for a small print, perhaps post card sized, this would give you enough pixel density for a reasonable print with fine detail if printed at 300dpi.
The larger you go beyond this, the print quality will start to drop off.
Depending on your style of painting and how much fine detail there is A5 may still be achievable but A4 and up and you could well be asking too much from your available pixels.
Ideally an A4 fine detail print would be 2480x3508px.
I regularly print at A3 for which I would be looking at a canvas size of 3508x4961px printed at 300dpi to ensure a fine quality print.

One way around this problem of a small canvas on mobile devices is, if you also have the desktop version, is to record your painting as an AR Script on the tablet while painting and then export it and play it back on the desktop version at the larger print size you want.

[Perendale]

oops slippage!! Ignore this. Listen to Mark :-)

markw is the person to answer this, but the most obvious thing to me is: make sure that when you create your canvas that the dpi setting is at least 300dpi. There are many other reasons that print quality may be poor.

Brett

[nekomata]

Hi. I am new and I am glad to be here. My Question. I have sent drawings to printed at a couple different locations and the product usually not that good. I am on a Samsung S6lite Tablet. Is this the reason or am I unaware of a setting? I just do not know and any insight would help. Thank you

it depends on too many variables, but I've assembled this list of image resolutions for printing purposes for myself.
I hope you can check with the files you're sending to your printer and from there get an idea what exactly you can expect from a tablet-made picture:

A5 paper: 1748 x 2480 pixels
A4 paper: 2480 x 3508 pixels (standard paper size in Europe)
8.5'' x 11'' paper: 2550x3300 pixels (standard paper size in USA)

A3 paper: 3508 x 4960 pixels (standard paper size in Europe)
11'' x 14'' paper: 3300x4200 pixels (typical size for art prints in USA)
12'' x 18'' paper: 3600x5400 pixels (typical size for art prints in USA)

5'' x 7'' postcard: 1500x2100 pixels

I personally printed many things created in desktop artrage in a higher image size, and done with both professional printing stations and more or less office grade equipment on the lower end of it, and the prints always came out well.

two things you should look out for are image compression when sending files (do you send JPGs? use .png if possible), and image size.

one of image printing websites I've used in the past recommended using adobe photoshop for upscaling small images because recent versions of PS have some sort of AI-assisted smart upscaling, but there're other image resize apps that do similar job without resorting to subscription-based licensing.

if you provide clear images of what your prints look like and point out what you dislike about the result, it will help a bit too. if they come out soft, blurry looking and miss sharp details, it's a file resolution issue.

[Ddot]

Thank you so much. I usually draw with alot of detail and I do believe you are correct on the sizes. That is OK. I don't really enjoy using computers but maybe With Artrage I might. I am going to read through as much of this new treasure trove of information as I can for now. Is it quite different on a computer? My wife and I share a mac.

[Ddot]

Thank you Brett. Tell you the truth, I have much to learn about the Artrage already

[markw]

...Is it quite different on a computer?...
Whilst being similar to the Desktop versions of ArtRage, the mobile versions are very much a striped down app, with the Desktop versions offering far more creative and technical possibilities.
If you want an overview of the differences between AR versions, there is this page: https://www.artrage.com/product-comparison/

But for ease of use you would ideally need some form of Pen & Tablet to use as an input device with the Desktop version.
I know some users can paint quite well with just their mouse but I find that impossible myself and take my hat of to those who can paint with just the mouse!:rolleyes:

[nekomata]

Is it quite different on a computer?

there're more tools, and there're some other nice trinkets you get for the price of the desktop app.
for detailed, less abstract work both stencils and custom brush tool imo are a must, and they aren't available for mobile because of memory constraints on mobile devices, and other performance reasons;

there's more depth to the tools shared between desktop and mobile releases, and there's a different, more complex color blending model that you can now adjust to your own liking. more customizable/custom content.

bigger toolsize (800 % maximum tool size in artrage vitae), and bigger document size (you can create a new document, or upscale an existing one, in up to 32x32 thousand pixels, provided your mac can candle this size) both allow you to paint 1:1 print-ready art directly in the app.

you will need a graphic tablet, and it's recommended to pick up a more professional model such as intuos pro, or its any competitors, because artrage supports tilt and rotation features, not found in entry level graphic tablets.