So you want to create a line of greeting cards from your artwork but you don’t know how. Well fear not, here are the basic steps to getting high-resolution scans of your artwork, which you can then turn into greeting cards.

You are going to want to scan your art at a high resolution (at least 300 dpi). It is always better to reduce the size of your art rather than enlarge, as enlarging can make it grainy in reproduction. For example, if you have a small image currently sized at 3”x4” and you want to place it in a 6”x9” area then you should scan your image in at 1200 dpi. That way, when you go to enlarge your file to fit the 6×9” area, you will not be loosing any quality.

Each scanner driver is different however most have the same basic settings, which you will want to adjust before scanning to improve the image quality. (Note: not all scanners will have these settings.)

Color format: Use color or grayscale for best result. Black and white is actually a single color mode, good for scanning line drawings, but bad for photos or images.

File Type: Select TIFF and PNG for best results. Do not select JPEG.

Resolution: 300 dpi is a good pixel density for printing. If planning on enlarging your original image then choose 1200 pdi.

Image Type: Select 24 bit color.

Document Size: Scan images at actual original size.

Once you have chosen your settings, save your file in a lossless format. JPEG is not recommended. TIFF or PNG are the best formats without creating artifacts or harming the image quality. Printing from JPEG will result in an inferior print compared to an original lossless PNG or TIFF.

Once your image is scanned, you may want to do some light digital touch-ups, including adjusting the contrast or brightness of the image and removing dust spots. This is easy to do in image editing programs like Photoshop.

Always double-check the color format of your image. We prefer files to be CMYK color. It will be important in ensuring that the color matches what you see on the screen.

Now that you have a proper scan of your artwork you are ready to layout your greeting card design. Here at Rhino Digital, we have convenient card templates for both A2 (folds to 4.25×5.5”) and A6 (folds to 4.5×6”) cards which you can just drop your newly scanned image into. If you do not have the software or know-how to layout the greeting cards yourself, we can do that for you for a fee.