laciefae Posted January 15, 2012 Share Posted January 15, 2012 I have had a hard time finding wallpaper that suits my style. I have a LOT of experience making tiling backgrounds for websites, so I decided to try making my own printable wallpaper. I have a few designs I really like, but I have a few questions for anyone familiar with designing printables. The first, not surprisingly is scale. I don't have a printer myself, so I will need to put my files on a disc and take it to a print shop. I'm designing in 72 dpi, and I'm not sure how that will affect the size of the design when it is printed. It appears printable wallpapers available online are 72 dpi, and that isn't making sense to me since most printers are at least 300 dpi. Any advice? The second question is what kind of paper should wallpapers be printed on so they can be glued without running? Any and all advice is most welcome! And if there is a knotty problem I haven't thought of yet, please, have at it:) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
havanaholly Posted January 15, 2012 Share Posted January 15, 2012 I've only heard about scaling down RL wallpaper patterns to whatever size wanted by saving them to "paint" or similar program and reducing them by whatever percentage to get them to the desired scale. For your own designs, I guess it would depend on the size of the original source you're adapting and experimentation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KathieB Posted January 15, 2012 Share Posted January 15, 2012 Spray the printed sheets with an artist's fixative or lacquer-based hairspray to set the colors and prevent running. Choose matte, not glossy, and it will be invisible. You may have to do a sample and have one page printed to test the scale/color, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kellyannmo Posted January 15, 2012 Share Posted January 15, 2012 I have been "designing" some of my own wallpaper for a little bit now.... however, I have just been finding real life wallpapers on line that I like and then muliplying the image in a paint program.... as for scale, I just eyeball it for myself. I am not a HUGE stickler on perfect scale.... it has to be close of course... but sometimes I like the wallpaper pattern to be larger or smaller... so I just go with how I feel. As Kathie said, seal your print with matte sealer... works like a dream... I even used Modge Podge over my last print and it didn't make the ink bleed at all. I also use a nice card stock to print on. Good luck... I really enjoy making wallpaper. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
laciefae Posted January 15, 2012 Author Share Posted January 15, 2012 Thanks for the advice. I had no idea sealing could be as simple as spraying with fixative. With regard to scale, I'm not having a problem getting the wallpaper I am making to an approximate scale. (I like the design to be a little on the large size as well.) My concern is what happens when I make the wallpaper in 72 dpi and then have it printed at 300 or 350 dpi. I don't know if I need to make the original design larger to compensate for the much higher resolution of print. Any experience with that? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chellebelle Posted January 15, 2012 Share Posted January 15, 2012 You can also spray it with Krylon Matte finish. I've used both it and the fixative with no problems Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.