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It’s easy to walk into an art store, see a canvas that will fit on that empty spot of the wall and know it’s the canvas you need. But, what about digital art? The canvas looks like it’s the size of my screen, whether it’s small or large. It’s so easy to choose the wrong sizing and make a mistake. So, the question is, what’s a good canvas size for digital art?
For printed work, your digital art canvas should be the same size as your desired final print. Use an inch to pixel converter to find your dimensions in pixels. The size of your canvas designed for the web depends on the platform you plan to display it on. The DPI of your canvas should be at least 150 for web work and 300 for print work.
If you plan to print your work, it really is as simple as choosing a canvas that’s the size of your desired final product. So, if you eventually want to print an 8×10 print, make your canvas 8×10.
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If I’m unsure what size I want my final print to be, I take some time and figure it out. That’s how much I care about choosing the right canvas size from the get-go.
To be fair, there have been a few times when I’ve jumped into a piece of art without knowing the exact sizing first. In those case, I aim for a larger canvas than I think I’ll need. Generally, I find it easier to scale my work down when printing, than scaling it up.
This is not always the case so, again, try to figure out your ideal canvas size ahead of time before you get started.
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Also, it’s important that you DON’T resize your canvas after you’ve created it. This can cause issues with quality, sizing, and overall results. So, again, decide on your canvas size from the get-go before you get started.
We have to think about DPI, which will change the size of your canvas, even if you’re still aiming for an 8×10 print at the end of the day.
Not to mention that it becomes more complicated when thinking about digitally displaying your work. How the heck do we know the size of Instagram posts?
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Later in this post, we’ll talk about what you need to consider when choosing a DPI for your canvas and how it impacts its size. That said, if you couldn’t care less about how all of this works and just want a clear answer on what size canvas you should pick for your digital art, I totally get it.
Here’s a chart you can use. These dimensions are based on 300 DPI, which is generally considered to be the minimum DPI for print work. And, as we’ll talk about more in depth in the next section, choose a larger size if you’re not exactly sure what size you’ll want or need.
You’ll notice more quality loss when you scale a small image to a larger size than when you scale a large image to a smaller size. You still want to be in the ballpark, but be in the larger end of the ballpark.
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Ok, another thing that’s important to understand is DPI. It’s really easy to get confused by DPI since it seems to magically balloon your canvas size. There’s a reason for it though and it doesn’t actually impact your canvas size in the way you would think.
DPI stands for dots per inch. As the name suggests, it tells you how many dots can fit into an inch of printed work (source). So, the larger the DPI, the more dots of ink will be in each inch of your printed final product.
In general, all printed work should be a minimum of 300 DPI, but you can go higher if you plan to print posters and larger pieces of work.
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If you change your DPI after you’ve entered in your pixels, it will change your pixel number. The reason for this is because DPI (or PPI) measures your dots per inch. So, if you increase it, your canvas will need more pixels to get the job done.
As long as you know the desired size of your final product and maintain a minimum of 300 DPI, you can let your design program decide what your pixel x pixel resolution will be. As you saw in the chart above, your inch x inch size relates to a specific pixel x pixel size, so you’ll be fine as long as you know one or the other.
Pixels and inches are just two different ways to measure something. One will always translate to the other as long as the DPI remains consistent.
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It’s much easier to know that you want a 8 x 10” print than a 2400 x 300 pixel canvas. As long as you have your DPI set correctly, your design program will pick the appropriate amount of pixels for the inches you need.
The reverse works as well. If you only know the pixels you need, your design program will turn it into the proper inches.
Personally, I just set my design to 300 DPI and just go with whatever number I already know. If I’m designing for the web, I use the pixels that are appropriate for a website. If I’m designing for print, I use the inches that I’ll be printing at. The rest just works itself out.
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Unless you’re designing a billboard, you probably won’t have to worry about creating a canvas so big that your design program can’t handle it. That said, it’s an important thing to keep in mind, since the maximum size for a design varies from iPad to iPad.
It’s hard to say what the max canvas sizes for varying programs are because it will depend on the DPI . In general, many programs can tolerate a certain number of pixels per design. Remember that the higher your DPI, the more pixels you’ll need. This means that you’ll get fewer inches of canvas space the higher your DPI is.
It’s more likely you’ll run into this issue with an iPad or tablet program because there is only so much that these small devices can support. For example, if you’re using Procreate, you might struggle to get a 24 x 36” poster size at 300 DPI.
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If you run into issues with maxing out your design program’s capacity, lower the DPI as much as you feel comfortable lowering it. While 300 DPI is recommended for print, anything above 150 DPI tends to print well. Talk with your printer and do a test print to see how low you can get your DPI while still getting the best print results.
If you plan to post your art on social media platforms, it can be good to review their image guidelines prior to deciding on your canvas size.
Choosing the right canvas size for your digital art is more complicated than walking into an art store and picking the canvas that will fill the blank spot on your wall. With some practice though, it will come easily and naturally.
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Simply choose your DPI and then size your canvas based upon what you’ll need as a final product. Luckily, with the magic of technology, our design programs will take it from there and deliver you the digital canvas that you need.
Diana has been an artist for over 26 years and has training in drawing, painting, digital drawing and graphic design. Diana’s latest obsession is digitally drawing with Procreate and creating t-shirt designs with Canva. Diana has experience selling her art across a number of platforms and loves helping other artists learn how to make money from their art as well.
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