You're a creative person. Your sketchbook, camera roll, or computer hard drive is filled with art that the world needs to see.
Right now, those artworks are just sitting with you. And you want to turn them into products that'll be appreciated by people around the world, and just as importantly, a new source of income.
But selling your art the traditional way is kind of a logistical nightmare. You have to deal with big upfront packaging and shipping costs, and the risk of the art piece not making to the customer without damage.
This is where the print-on-demand (POD) comes in.
The concept is simple: you provide the art, and a production partner handles all the printing, framing, packing, and shipping for you. The best part? They only do it after a customer places an order, which means you never pay for a product until you've already made a sale, or have to hold any inventory.
In this guide, I'll walk you through the entire process, from digitising your physical art to choosing the right POD partner to launch a successful print shop on Etsy so that you have the best chance of success.
Let's get started.
Step 1 - Turning Your Art into a High-Quality Digital File
Before you can sell a print, you need a great digital file. Your final product will only be as good as your starting file.
For Physical Art (Drawings, Paintings)
If your art is on paper or canvas, you need to digitise it before you can sell it online. You have two main options.
1. High-Resolution Scanning: This is the best choice for flat artwork like sketches, illustrations, and watercolours. Use a flatbed scanner and make sure to set it to at least 300 DPI (Dots Per Inch), which is the standard for high-quality printing. Save the file as a PNG or TIFF to preserve a high quality file.
2. Professional Photography: For art with texture, like oil or acrylic paintings, a camera could be a better option than a scanner. To get a great shot, place your art in a spot with bright, indirect natural light. Make sure the whole art piece is lit up evenly without harsh shadows. Use a tripod to keep your camera perfectly still and avoid any blur.
For Digital Art
If you've created your art on a computer or tablet, this process is a lot simpler. Just make sure you're working in a high-resolution canvas (a good rule of thumb is at least 4000 pixels on the longest side) at 300 DPI. When you're done, export your final piece as a high-quality PNG file.
Step 2 - What Physical Products You Can Create from Your Art
With one high-quality digital file, you can now build an entire product line easily with print-on-demand. The POD method allows you to offer a range of physical products without a big upfront investment.
Nowadays, POD production partners offer a large range of products for art pieces. You can expect to find something like:
- A standard, affordable poster
- A gallery-quality fine art print on textured paper
- A classic wooden framed poster
- A modern, sleek aluminium print
- ... and much more
Choosing which product to go with largely depends on your design and your target customers. You can have a simple poster print for a student's dorm room and a premium wooden framed piece for a luxury living room piece, all originating from the same piece of art.
Step 3 - Step-By-Step Overview of Selling Prints on Etsy Using POD
The idea of connecting a print-on-demand production partner to your Etsy shop can feel technical and intimidating, but the process is actually pretty easy and straightforward. Let me walk you through the general steps:
01 - Set Up Your Production Partner in Etsy. First, you need to tell Etsy that you are working with a partner to create your items. This is a requirement for selling anything on Etsy that you don't physically make yourself. You can do so by going to your Etsy dashboard, click 'settings' and then 'Partners you work with':
02 - Choose a POD Platform. This is where you will choose a company to handle your printing. I recommend choosing a POD partner that integrates directly with Etsy as this will make your life a lot easily. The big POD partners that do that include Gelato, Printful, and Printify. You'll create an account on their platform and connect it to your shop. When connecting to Etsy, it will look something like this:
03 - Upload Your Design & Create a Product. Once connected, you can upload your artwork digital file to the POD platform's software and place it on a product, like a poster. You'll adjust the sizing and placement until it's perfect. Many of them also can generate professional mockup product photos for you to use for your Etsy listings.
04 - "Push" the Product to Etsy. The best POD platforms have a one-click integration that automatically creates a new draft listing in your Etsy shop. It will pull in mockup images, product details, and pricing.
05 - Finalise and Publish. The last step is to go into that draft listing in your Etsy Shop Manager. Here you can polish the title and tags for Etsy SEO, write your own unique description, set your final customer price, and hit "publish" for the world to see your artwork.
Step 4 - How to Pick a POD Production Partner that's Right for You
This is one of the most important decisions you'll make for your new print shop. Your partner's quality is your quality. Their shipping speed is your shipping speed.
Let's compare the top print-on-demand production partners in 3 categories:
Category 01 - Quality & Consistency
- Printify operates as an open marketplace, meaning you have tons of printers to choose from. The risk is that quality can be inconsistent from one to the next. So unless you have free time and money to test out and compare a few printers, it's hard to know for sure.
- Printful owns its facilities, so quality is high and consistent. However, their base prices are often the highest, cutting into your profit and making your product not competitive on price.
- Gelato uses a curated network of professional print partners who are vetted for quality. This gives you the best balance: consistent, high-end quality at the most competitive prices in the industry.
Category 02 - Shipping Speed & Cost
For Etsy, shipping time is important. Slow shipping leads to higher chance of bad reviews.
- Printify's shipping speed depends entirely on the specific print provider you choose. A provider in your country might be fast for domestic orders, but international orders can still be very slow and expensive if that provider only have one set origin location for shipping.
- Printful has a more reliable network with its own facilities in North America and Europe. This works well for orders within those regions, but shipping to other parts of the world, like Australia or Asia, can still take a relatively long time.
- Gelato has over 140 production hubs in 32 countries, they produce your print as close to your customer as possible. An order for a customer in the UK is made in the UK; an order for a customer in Australia is made in Australia. This local production model means 90% of orders arrive within 5 days of ordering, which makes Gelato the winner in this category.
Category 03 - Product Range & Profitability
All major POD platforms will cover the basics: you can sell standard posters and simple framed prints. But on a crowded marketplace like Etsy, offering products that's different than other sellers is one of the ways to stand out.
I've compared the product catalogs of all three major POD providers, and this is one of the areas where Gelato pulls ahead. Beyond the standard options, they offer unique products like foam prints and wood prints. Depending on your niche, these may be items that many other sellers aren't offering, immediately differentiating your shop and giving you a new way to present your art.
About cost and profitability, Printify and Gelato base prices are the most competitive, while Printful is often the most expensive. But recently Gelato has started Gelato+, which offers up to 35% off their product catalog. This discount usually makes Gelato the most competitive option for selling prints on Etsy.
