Art File Requirements

General File Submission Requirements

Early File Requests

Final File Requests

Large scale file submission tips per medium

Digital art

Paintings, drawings, and mixed media

Photography

For all Art Challenge submissions, we ask artists to send their highest resolution file before winners are announced so we can determine if a piece is able to meet our resolution standard for our large-scale products. We’d like to help artists meet these standards as much as possible, and this will allow us to assess what we can do to improve the file. For example, we have an expert team working on scaling software enhancements that can help many designs scale to larger sizes. Or if the winning piece is a painting, we can look into helping you have the piece professionally scanned. We require all designs to scale to our largest sizes: 48x70 (for portrait and landscape pieces) or 44x44 (for square pieces).

When creating your large scale artwork submission, we ask that you meet a few technical  requirements. These requirements are meant to ensure our products can be produced at the level of quality Minted is known for, and ensure you are benefiting from your artwork being offered in the full breadth of Minted artwork sizes. 

There are 3 potential file uploads that we will request from you throughout the Art Challenge process:

• Submit to a Challenge: To submit art to the Challenge to be considered for a win, we ask for an initial submission file.
  
• Early file Review: If your artwork is chosen to be considered as a winning piece, we will ask for another file during the early file request process.
  
• Final Files: If your artwork scales to our highest sizes, we will then ask for your final file during our final file request process.

General File Submission Requirements

• Minted will create prints of winning submissions, which will be available in a variety of sizes on Minted.com, from 5” x 7” up to 48” x 70” (our sizes and ratios can be found in this FAQ article). 
• We require all artwork to scale up to our largest sizes, so please note the submission parameters in the “How to Submit Winning Files” section of each Art Challenge brief.
• Digital reproductions of original artwork should be created as a high-resolution photograph or scan (2400 DPI saved as a TIFF preferred) in order to scale to 48” x 70” or 44” x 44”.
• The final artwork will need to be sRGB IEC61966 if submitted with a JPG or TIFF.
• Native Resolution of an image file is important. This is the dimension, in pixels, of the image as it was originally taken or scanned. A good Native Resolution image would be at least 3700x5550 pixels at 300 PPI. To see the native resolution of your file:
  • On a Mac - right mouse click the original image file and select ‘Get Info’. Under the ‘More Info’ section, it will say ‘Dimensions’ or ‘Resolution’, depending if the file is a PDF or JPG.
  • On a PC - right mouse click the original image file and select ‘Properties’. Within the ‘Details’ tab, you will find the ‘Dimensions’ of your image.
• We highly recommend that you use Photoshop or Illustrator (Illustrator is preferred) to preview how your artwork will look when scaled up to 48” x 70” or 44” x 44”. If it looks good on-screen, we will likely be able to launch in all sizes.
  • Resize to a new large size (If using Photoshop, ensure your file is also at 300ppi at the our largest size to get an accurate view).
  • Click Command+1 to view at 100% scale.
  • Turning on the ruler tool (Command+R) will help you get a sense of scale.

• Reminder: This is just to preview printing quality on your own, not file prep!

• What to Avoid:
  • Do not resize or resample the pixel resolution in editing software, such as Photoshop or other upscale software.
  • When editing in Photoshop, avoid overuse of large-scale edits (i.e., clone stamp tool) as it can affect quality when enlarged to larger sizes.

Early File Requests

After submitting your highest quality unscaled file, our team will complete a resolution check to test if your piece scales successfully to our largest sizes (48”x70” for portrait/landscape sizes; 44”x44” for square sizes).

If your piece does not scale successfully during this review, we will notify you to let you know we will not be able to accept it as a winner.

How to prepare your file for Early File Requests:

• The final artwork will need to be sRGB IEC61966 if submitting a JPG file.
• The final artwork will need to be CMYK if submitting a AI file:
  • For Custom Art (artwork that the customer can edit. For example, artwork that includes an editable text box or photo), it is preferred to use CMYK Web Uncoated
  • For Non-Custom Art, it is preferred to use CMYK U.S. Web Coated (SWOP) v2
  • Please do NOT use any profile outside of these two for AI files.
• Ideally, we would like:
  • For scanned artwork: please send us a TIFF file with no compression
  • For photographed artwork: 16-bit layered .psd or .tif file
  • If the formats above are not possible, or your workflow does not accommodate, please send us flattened 16-bit TIFF files with no compression. Here is a great guide to creating a flat TIFF file in Photoshop
• If your piece is being considered as a potential winner, we will ask you to submit your highest quality unscaled file with all of your creative edits completed.

Final File Requests

How to prepare your file for Final File Requests:

• If your piece scales successfully during our testing period, we will request final files from you after winners are announced. 
• Please follow all instructions above as noted for Early File Requests, but also please make any final edits to remove stray marks, hairs, signatures, scan marks, etc. prior to submitting your final file.
• If our team has any special requests for your piece(s), we will include them in your file request email.
• Reminder that the files that we launch on site must match your original file submissions, in terms of coloring and lighting, pending any special requests from our merchandising team.

Large scale file submission tips per medium

Digital Art

If you are working in Photoshop or Illustrator, it’s best to create your document at the size of your final submission at 300 ppi (48” x 70”, 70” x 48”, or 44” x 44”). This is especially important if you are working with outside elements such as textures, imported images, or Photoshop layers in your Illustrator file. Even if your art is digital, these elements can prevent your artwork from scaling to our largest sizes due to inconsistent resolution quality.

What to avoid:

• Please do not rasterize elements in your digital artwork unless they are rasterized at the appropriate size for your work to scale. If rasterizing is needed, all rasterizing should be done while your artwork is scaled to 48” x 70”, 70” x 48”, or 44” x 44”.
• Using low resolution images within your artwork, even for a small section or as an overlay, will cause inconsistent resolution quality and will not meet our standards.
• If creating textures and layers in Photoshop to use in your final Illustrator file submission, create them at the scale that is appropriate for our largest sizes. (this will depend on how large you need your layer within your 48” x 70”, 70” x 48”, or 44” x 44” artboard). Even if your Photoshop elements are created digitally, they can become pixelated or unintentionally blurry at the edges when scaled in your Illustrator file.

For digital art created with textures, we strongly suggest that you test print a section of your work scaled to 48” x 70”, 70” x 48”, or 44” x 44” to make sure your art is high quality and the scale makes sense. If you do not have access to a printer, we recommend you use Photoshop or Illustrator (Illustrator is preferred) to preview your artwork scaled up to 48” x 70” or 44” x 44” to check resolution (If using PS, ensure your file is also at 300ppi at the our largest size to get an accurate view).

If your work is completely vector art submitted as an AI file: No problem! Vector art can be infinitely scaled.

A note about Procreate files: Currently, the artboard size is limited in the Procreate program and we have found difficulty scaling Procreate files to our largest sizes. This is dependent on the type of brushes, textures and elements used within the Procreate program. However, we have found that using elements designed on individual artboards (at the largest size) within Procreate and then combining/resizing those elements to other digital programs (Illustrator or Photoshop, for example) has a greater chance of scaling to all Minted sizes.

Paintings, Drawings, Mixed Media

If you are submitting paintings, drawings, or mixed media, your artwork will need to be digitized before submission.

To digitize your painting successfully, use a scanner that scans between 900 and 2000 dpi (most print shops have scanners that can scan up to 1200 or 2400 dpi, and some have even larger). Many home scanners can scan up to 2400 dpi, while some professional-grade home scanners will scan as high as 6400 dpi. Some minted artists choose to get their work professionally photographed - we leave this option up to each artist, however, we do not recommend photographing your artwork using a mobile phone.

Tip: Clean your painting before scanning to make file cleanup easier! Scanned files show artifacts like dust, paint brush hairs, and strings easily when scaled to our largest sizes. A brush hair on a 18x24 canvas will almost triple in size at our 48”x 70” size. We suggest a microfiber cloth or gentle vacuuming with a soft bristle brush.

If the artwork resolution still doesn't meet Minted standards after digitizing and reviewing it on-screen at 100% view in our largest sizes, one solution is to "grid" out your work and piece it together. By scanning or photographing individual grid segments and then stitching them together in Photoshop’s Photo Merge or similar program, you can achieve a larger file while maintaining a high resolution.

In order to ensure that your painting can scale appropriately, we strongly recommend that you create your original painting on an 18 x 24 inch canvas (18 x 18 inch for square projects).  While designs created on smaller canvases will not be automatically eliminated from voting, if a design can not scale to our largest size, then Minted will not be able to offer it for sale on our website. 

Photography

When submitting photography, please keep in mind how the image was photographed and the editing process to ensure that your photograph can scale. 

What to keep in mind:

• If you want to add texture or stylistic elements (grain, blur, overlays, etc) to your photograph in the editing process, keep in mind what those edits will look like scaled to our largest sizes. Your edits should look intentional and have good resolution quality for all sizes.
• For example: Grain added to an 18”x24” photograph looks much different when scaled to 48”x70”. It will turn pixelated and each grain will become much bigger for our larger sizes.
• Severe cropping will shrink file size making it increasingly harder to scale.
• Keep in mind the different aspect ratios for each of our sizes before making final cropping decisions (our sizes and ratios are listed under the “Submitting AI Files” section).

Tips on taking photographs that can scale to 48x70:

• Your cameras should ideally be 24MP or higher to ensure scalable quality
• Make sure your camera is defaulted to the highest megapixel setting
• Capture images in-camera as RAW/DNG files for maximum pixel information whenever possible
• Shoot on a tripod or with stabilizer lenses whenever possible
• Turn on the viewfinder grid if available on your camera for horizons and straightness. This will help to avoid having to straighten and crop in post-production
• Try in-camera cropping rather than cropping in post-production
• Use the lowest ISO possible on your camera
• Check the depth of field for sharpness of all intended subject matter
• Choose an appropriate white balance for the intended lighting and scene

Reminder: photos taken on mobile phones are not eligible. We are not able to scale them to our largest size at this time. Please do not submit mobile phone photography.