What is the hand-written name and how do I prepare it?

Your hand-written name is an important part of your identity on Minted. It helps our customers identify with you as a person and an artist. The handwritten name appears on the Minted site and on the certificate of authenticity that accompanies art print orders.

Uploading a hand-written version of your full, real name (not your artist name) is required if you have products for sale on Minted.

You'll need two versions of your hand-written name, one white and one black. Both need to be on a 100% transparent background. Please do not use your legal signature, and do not use a logo or a typeface.

How to create and upload your hand-written name:

1. Write your full real name on a piece of paper in a black pen.

2. Scan your name. If you don't have a scanner, you can take a picture — just try to have even lighting.
3. Open your scanned file in Photoshop.
4. Go to: ‘Select’ > ‘Color Range…’
5. Eyedrop the darkest part of your signature.
6. Set the ‘Fuzziness’ bar to maximum (200).

7. Hit ‘OK’. This will make a selection of your signature.
8. Go to ‘Layer’ > ‘New’ > ‘Layer Via Copy’.

9. Hide the layer that contains your original scanned image by clicking the eye icon next to the layer or going to ‘Layer’ > ‘Hide Layers’

10. Select the entire canvas by hitting ‘command’ or ‘control-A’.
11. Make the signature white by going to ‘Edit’ --> ‘Fill’. Select ‘White’ under the ‘Use:’ menu, and (IMPORTANT!) check ‘Preserve Transparency’. Hit ‘OK’

12. Click the layer with your signature. Go to ‘Select’ > ‘Load Selection’, click ‘OK’ (You can also 'Control' (PC) or 'Command' (MAC) to click the layer in your layer palette)

13. Go to ‘Select’ > ‘Inverse’, then hit the ‘Delete’ button on your keyboard. This will eliminate any last traces of white from the background)

13. Crop and/or resize the image to make it fit nicely within 600 x 160 pixels.
14. Save the image as a png to retain transparency.
15.  Go to ‘Image’ > ‘Adjustments’ > ‘Invert’.
16. Crop and/or resize the black version to make it 415 x 120 pixels.
17. Save the image as a separate .png
18. Upload the images by going to your artist dashboard and clicking on “Edit Your Artist Profile". (More detailed instructions on how to edit your profile can be found here.)
19. Upload the black signature under “Hand-written Name: Black”.
20. Upload the white signature under “Hand-written Name: White”.
21. IMPORTANT: When you're done, be sure to click "Submit" at the bottom right. 

Congratulations - you’ve updated your hand-written name!