How to Sell Prints of Your Art on Etsy Without Printing Anything

In our first video in this ‘Making money from your art’ series, I showed you how to create and sell digital files of your art in your Etsy store that a buyer could buy, download and print themselves or get printed locally. It’s quick and easy. However, not all buyers want to print themselves. Some may just prefer to place an order and have the framed print arrive at their house ready to hang. So in this video, I will show you how to sell prints of your art without having to do the work yourself.

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How to sell framed prints of your art in your Etsy store without actually printing, framing or sending anything. A video tutorial on how to use Printful to print, frame and fulfil your orders

It would be time-consuming and potentially expensive to set up this facility yourself. You would need to buy a really good printer, high-quality inks and papers, frames and packaging supplies. Unless you splashed out for an expensive large format printer you would be restricted to only making prints that were A4 or Letter sized and your buyer most likely wants something much bigger. So its much better, quicker, easier and cheaper to outsource the printing, framing and shipping service to the professionals. I sell prints in my store via a company called Printful.

You will need:
An Etsy Store – sign up here to get your first 40 listings for free
An account with Printable – sign up here
A nice camera – check out these digital SLR camera kits with everything you need in one package
A tripod– included in the packages above
Macro lens (optional) – usually included in the packages above
Photo editing software such as Photoshop (for the experts) or even PicMonkey (easy to use) or other free software

https://youtube.com/watch?v=E_v1suKo104%3Fversion%3D3%26rel%3D1%26fs%3D1%26autohide%3D2%26showsearch%3D0%26showinfo%3D1%26iv_load_policy%3D1%26wmode%3Dtransparent

Articles referenced in the video:

How to sell prints of your art without printing or framing or mailing anything!

1 – Set yourself up with an Etsy store if you don’t already have one.

2 – Go to Printful and set up an account with them here.

3 – Follow the steps in the video above for how to link the two – it’s easy  🙂

4 – Create the digital file that you want to be turned into a print. Check out the earlier article on how to do this if you aren’t sure.

5 – Set up your new product within the Printful dashboard. Again the video shows you how to do it.

6 – Check and edit your listing on Etsy and publish the print for sale.

7 – Promote your store and products, and Printful processes all your orders for you like magic.

When the orders come in

Here is a sequence of events that will occur:

  • Receive an email from Etsy and Printful
  • Go to Printful and set up the payment details. 
  • Make the payment 
  • Set the automatic debit from the already received payment for the next orders
  • Enjoy selling on the go!

Now all future orders are dealt with automatically between Etsy and Printful and you don’t have to do a thing! Simplifying the procedure: Etsy collects the payment, sends the order to Printful, who collect payment from you, print your items, send it to the customer and mark your Etsy sale as completed. You can keep your store open even if you are on vacation knowing orders will still be dealt with on time.

Why not just use RedBubble or similar services?

There are other companies where you can send them files and customers can order via their websites. However, with these services, you are limited to their format for your store page and can only sell their items. It can be confusing to your potential customers if they have to go to your Etsy store for the original art,  RedBubble for t-shirts and somewhere else again to get framed prints or canvases. In my opinion, it’s better to have all of your products you offer in a single storefront so your customer only has one link to follow.

There is nothing to stop you manually setting up items for sale in your Etsy store and then ordering them from other third party suppliers to ship to you or your customer, but it’s just more work for you to have to manually deal with all of these orders. I’d rather list the item once and then let Printful take care of everything automatically for me. Life is busy enough!

So I hope that helps with how you can sell framed prints in your Etsy store through Printful without having to print, frame or send anything. It can be a nice little extra sideline on top of selling your original art pieces.  In a future video, I will look briefly at how you can sell canvas prints of your art, again via Printful, because the set up process for those is just very slightly different.

It would be time-consuming and potentially expensive to set up this facility yourself. You would need to buy a really good printer, high-quality inks and papers, frames and packaging supplies. In this video, I will show you how to sell prints of your art without having to do the work yourself. It's much better, quicker, easier and cheaper to outsource the printing, framing and shipping service to the professionals. I sell prints in my store via a company called Printful.

FAQs

Where can I get my paintings printed?

There are many options for printing your paintings, including local print shops, online printing services, and large chain stores like Staples or Office Depot. You can also look for print-on-demand services that specialize in printing artwork, such as Fine Art America or Society6. These services allow you to upload your artwork and order prints in a variety of sizes and formats, without having to worry about purchasing and storing large quantities of prints.

How do I sell art prints online?

Selling art prints online is a great way to reach a wider audience and make your artwork more accessible to potential buyers. There are several options for selling art prints online, including creating your own website, using a platform like Etsy or eBay, or partnering with a print-on-demand service. To sell your art prints online, you will need to create digital versions of your artwork, determine your pricing and shipping options, and set up a payment system for customers to purchase your prints.

Does Etsy do print on demand?

Yes, Etsy offers a print-on-demand service called Etsy Print. This service allows Etsy sellers to offer prints of their artwork without having to worry about purchasing and storing large quantities of prints. When a customer orders a print, the order is sent to Etsy Print, which produces the print and ships it directly to the customer. As the seller, you will receive a commission for each print sold through Etsy Print.

188 thoughts on “How to Sell Prints of Your Art on Etsy Without Printing Anything”

  1. I would like to sell prints of my paintings in the way you suggest, using a firm such as Printful to do the hard work. But, how do you keep control of the quality of the printing eg colour, tone balance, theframing and the numbers done. How do you get paid? I like to get fine arts trade quality prints done in the U.K. of my work and approve a proof before anything gets printed. How do you also keep control of copyright? I will have to read the articles on setting up with Etsy before I go any further

    1. Controlling the number is easy. They don’t sell them, you do, so you only sell as many as you decide yourself, whether that is one, 100 or unlimited. In terms of quality control, you can place your own order with Printful for the products to test how they would look and be delivered to your customer. Printful also has reviews on their site under the products so you can see what other people (like you, with stores) thought of the quality. How do you get paid – you sell through Etsy and the customer makes payment to you via Etsy orders. Copyright is not affected by asking another company to print for you. You still own and control the full rights to the original and the digital file. Printful won’t steal your design and sell it themselves.

    2. Thanks for this, exactly what I was after for a suggestion on the print on demand side of things. Look forward to setting up a cycling photos store on Etsy now!..

  2. I am new to this so let that be a warning that I may sound like an idiot. I am an artist that is finally taking the step into online sales. I just opened Etsy (I wish I knew about the 40 free listings before I did) but haven’t posted any paintings yet. I plan to sell originals as well as prints. The latter is what’s keeping my store shuttered for now. I had been taking all my photos with an Iphone 6s (10megapixels, I think). I got scared it would not be sufficient but I’m no photographer so I have no fancy equipment (nor funds to acquire or time to learn it) so I researched until I was fuzzy. I somehow (like I said “fuzzy”, I can’t remember my source) ended up buying a used Canon Power Shot S110. I’m assuming it will be better than my phone for print work. The minimum DPI they require is 150. So my question is how do I know, or how do I set my phone/camera to, the size file I’m sending? I ended up with Printful. Only after signing up with them and connecting them to my Esty shop did I realize they don’t do small prints. No 8×10’s or smaller. I think it starts at 11×14 or something. So my last question is will the Canon take pics big enough for print work that size or bigger? And did I even need the new camera, would the Iphone have been sufficient?

    1. I doubt if your iPhone would do the job. The Canon should be all right. Key to the whole thing is a tripod, good lighting, and a little bit of processing the results! Set your camera to take the biggest, best quality shots it can. Download the RAW (photo format, saved by your camera) images to a computer, where you can adjust exposure, size and well… just about everything. The first thing I do is to make sure the exposure, colours, and everything are perfect or near enough that a blind man can’t see the difference (as my grandfather used to say). Then I convert the image to a vector (eg .pdf) format. I learned to do it myself – it’s not difficult, but there are services that will do it for you online. The reason is that I can then enlarge the picture to my heart’s content without losing quality. From there on in you can deliver any size they ask for. I use 300DPI – it really is a lot better than 150.

  3. I’m impressed, I must say. Rarely do I come across a blog that’s both equally educative and
    amusing, and let me tell you, you’ve hit the nail on the head.
    The problem is something that not enough men and women are speaking
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  4. I create art through DazStudio and Poser. Setting DPI and gaining sizes large enough for prints is certainly no issue there (bearing that my computer is then held hostage for however long it takes to render my art piece fully). All of my images are saved in .png format. Would it still be better to convert them into .pdf format? After all, I can easily choose 10k x 10k and 500DPI or more for the original already.
    I’m asking, because starting an Etsy store is something I have seriously considered for quite a long time now. Between all of the members of my family we make : digital art, jewelry, stone aquarium crafts, simple paintings, wooden wall decor, and quite a bit more depending on the day (5 kids with wild imaginations who need a constant outlet can do that). If I can even get ONE medium’s ducks in a row before starting, I’m winning with this lot of misfits.

    1. Pamela, one of my good friends does make a very good living selling prints of his fluid art prints, but he markets them to hotels and businesses as modern art for their rooms and lobbies.

  5. Good day! Thank you very much for this useful video and article!
    I wonder, what are the return rules when you work via Printful?
    What if the customer is not happy with the product and would like to return it and get the payment back? Who is taking this responsibility and fincial risks?

  6. i love your videos. Im overwhelmed. I have about 30 paintings and it seems like such a lot of work to make stories about each one. How good does the wrap around need to be painted. I just kind used the same colors, not an addition of the subject matter. Originally, I was thinking about selling my original art for about a little more than artists are selling their canvas prints. I am getting faster, but it takes me forever to finish one. Im so confused about working with printful as opposed to Camvaschamp which has more sizes and better prices but do not offer framed prints. Dazed and confused

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  8. Does anyone know of a UK based printing company that offers the same kind of integration API for doing this that is comparable to Printable?

  9. Wonderful guide to sell the prints products on etsy. I love to do DIY activities and sell my products online. This is really helpful article for me. Thank you for sharing it.

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  11. Im so confused about working with printful as opposed to Camvaschamp which has more sizes and better prices but do not offer framed prints. Dazed and confused

  12. Does anyone know of a UK based printing company that offers the same kind of integration API for doing this that is comparable to Printable?

  13. Thanks for sharing this, Exactly what I was after for a suggestion on the print on demand side of things. Look forward to setting up a tennis shoes store on Etsy now!

  14. This is no doubt wonderful guide to sell the homemade products on etsy. I will surely follow these instructions for my product and store. Thank you for sharing this article.

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  22. Hello! I loved this article! I am trying to research and figure out my plan for having an Etsy store for selling my art. My question is (questions, sorry I have a lot), do I have to take pictures of my art? I am assuming I scan it and touch it up a bit on a computer? And just so I’m understanding, if I did scan my art, touch it up a bit, then I would need to make sure it’s in pdf format (is it automatically vector once scanned?), and the dpi is for.. Like the quality of it? How do I check to see what the dpi is after I’ve converted it to pdf? If I do an art piece will each art piece have a different dpi? Or is the dpi all based on like the scan, and what edits I do with photoshop ect? Quick summary of my understanding, I can make an art piece, photograph it (or scan it?) convert to pdf and sell it as a digital/downloadable print, AND I can use that printing service to ship actual, physical prints? Thank you! And my apologies for all the questions and long comment lol.

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  42. I wanted to take a moment to express my appreciation for the insightful article on “How to Sell Prints on Etsy.” As an aspiring artist looking to share my work with a wider audience, this guide has been an invaluable resource in navigating the world of online art sales.

    The article provided a comprehensive and step-by-step breakdown of the process, from setting up an Etsy shop to effectively marketing and selling prints. The explanations were clear and concise, making it easy to follow along and implement the suggested strategies.

    Thank you for sharing this valuable resource. It’s evident that a lot of thought and expertise went into creating this guide, and I’m excited to implement these strategies and share my art with a wider audience.

  43. Great tips! I’ve been looking for ways to sell my art online without having to print and ship everything myself. This post has given me some valuable insights on how to get started with selling prints of my art on Etsy. I’m excited to try out these strategies and see where they take my business. Thanks for sharing!

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