Lesson video

Hello, my name's Mr. Groom and welcome to another Oak National Academy Art lesson.

So today I hope you're looking forward to studying digital printing, integrating technology in printmaking.

This is from the Unit Foundation Workshop, Developing Skills.

This is such an important skill and level of knowledge to understand in the world of printmaking and digital printing in particular.

So I can't wait to get stuck in.

I hope you're looking forward to it too.

By the end of this lesson, you'll be able to prepare and create a digital design ready for high quality printing onto a chosen material, either paper or fabric or something similar.

Now, before we get started with the lesson proper, we need to make ourselves familiar with these keywords.

So first of all, absolutely key and central to the whole lesson is digital printing.

So digital printing is a method of printing directly from a digital file, like an image on your computer, to paper, fabric or some other medium using inkjet or laser technology, usually some form of electronic printer.

Vectors are graphics, images made up of paths defined by mathematical equations.

So this means they're scalable without losing quality.

You can make them bigger or smaller and they retain their quality.

Rasters are slightly different, they are graphics that are composed of pixels, little squares of color, and this means that quality of the image decreases when they're enlarged.

Resolution is the way that we measure the quality of an image, an electronic image, and we measure it in dots per inch.

It defines the print clarity and detail of an image.

The higher the DPI, the higher the print clarity and detail.

So firstly, we're gonna explore some digital image types and then you are gonna design and prepare a digital print file.

I can't wait to see what you come up with.

So let's start the lesson by exploring digital image types.

And let's just think for a minute about where we actually see digital prints around us.

You might not always notice them, but they are everywhere.

So I just want you to have a think about where we might find them.

If you wanna pause the video, you can to have a bit of a longer think.

So, we encounter printed digital images every day all around us, like I mentioned.

For example, when you wear a t-shirt with a design on it, you might have thought about that, you might even be wearing one now, when you walk past a colorful poster, when you open a package, food package, you might be tucking into a snack in between your Oak Art lessons, and it's highly likely that that snack is packaged with branding that is printed on it.

And all of these often use digital printing.

Maybe on a journey you take today, the road signs that guide you are likely to have been printed using digital printing.

And indeed, when you check your phone after this lesson, you might see that your phone case relies on the same digital printing technology.

So before we even begin creating, it's worth recognizing that digital printing surrounds our daily live.

Now digital printing isn't just about speed, it's also about accuracy.

It allows artists and designers to produce highly detailed and repeatable prints.

So have a little think about how that's different from traditional methods such as screen printing or lino printing, where every print might vary slightly.

Digital printing creates consistency, which is vital if you want the design to look the same on a hundred posters or across a whole clothing line.

And importantly, it bridges the world of traditional artistic skill, like drawing, photography, or traditional printmaking with modern technology.

And what that does is it opens up new creative possibilities for artists who want to combine the best of both.

So what is digital printing? Well, in its simplest form, digital printing is printing directly from a computer file onto a surface.

But here's something that people have to be careful about and you are gonna have to be careful about when you are doing some digital printing.

A lot of people think that any image they find online will print out clearly, should be really simple, right? You do an image search, find the image you want to use to print out, send it to your printer, print it onto your print medium, maybe you make it bigger, it'll print out exactly how you want, but that's not actually true.

Many online images are actually quite low resolution, which means they don't have enough detail to print well, and when you enlarge them, they can look really pixelated or blurry.

Now, as artists and designers, we need to understand how resolution works so we can avoid these disappointments in our work.

So why does this matter? If you want your work to come out the way that you intend, you have an idea, you find the imagery that you want to use, you come up in your mind with a sort of picture of how that's going to look, if you want it to actually end up looking like that, you need to be able to understand file types, resolution and the materials that you are printing onto.

And if you overlook these things, your print might look really dull, might come out not the colors that you want, might come out really unclear, pixelated, or even just completely unusable.

So our knowledge of the technical side of printing is what will transform a good digital design into a really successful, beautiful, finished product.

Let's just check now that you understand what we've talked about when we are talking about digital printing.

So I want you to think about what best describes digital printing.

Is it A, printing carved images from a lino block, is it B, printing by hand using stencils, C, printing only photographs onto paper, or D, printing directly from a computer file onto a surface? So have a think about that question, pause the video and then come back to check your understanding.

So that's right, well done, the correct answer is D.

Digital printing means directly printing from a computer file onto a surface.

Now let's have a little think about file formats.

So when we save images, we have to make choices about what file formats to use, because different formats have different purposes.

Now, in design software, there are two main types of image that we need to explore.

So they are raster images and vector images.

You should recognize those from the keywords that I introduced at the beginning of the lesson.

Now, understanding the difference between them is key, absolutely crucial to making sure our prints look sharp and professional.

So let's have a little look at the differences between them.

So raster images are made up of pixels.

So pixels are tiny blocks of color, tiny little squares of color, and photographs are usually raster images.

You might have been able to see this if you were looking at a photo before on your computer or on your phone and you zoomed in really, really close to look at something in the background.

And actually when you zoomed in, you realized all you could see were just a bunch of tiny little, little squares of color.

Now, vector images, by contrast, are slightly different.

They are built from mathematical paths.

Now that might sound complicated, but it simply means they're based on shapes and lines rather than individual dots.

Now that difference is absolutely crucial.

When you enlarge a raster, it can blur or break up into visible pixels.

You can see that with our example on the left.

A vector, on the other hand, can be scaled to any size because it's not made up of those little blocks of color because it's made up of shapes and lines and the mathematical parts of those shapes and lines.

It means that it can be scaled up or down to any size and the image will stay uncorrupted, it will stay really sharp.

So that's why if we're thinking about digital logos and designs that need resizing, they're nearly always vectors.

If you think about a brand of clothing or a brand of food packaging, for example, that you're familiar with, you might know that they put that same logo on, you know, multiple different products, different sizes, particularly in clothing.

You might have the same logo on the front of a piece of clothing and also on the back.

And they're completely different sizes, but they both look really sharp, and that's because vectors have been used for the resizing.

So it's absolutely crucial this difference between the two.

Let's have a little closer look at a raster image for a moment.

And this is a raster image of a star that we can see here.

So as you get closer, you'll start to see the grid of tiny blocks, these pixels.

So you can see the sort of lighter yellow ones in the middle.

As they move out from the middle of the star, it becomes more orange.

And then we've got those sort of like, dark purple ones on the edge.

And you'll see that this grid of tiny blocks, the pixels means that if you print a raster file to a larger size, the image looks fuzzy or jagged.

Now, most photographs you see online are raster files.

So some level of pixelation is expected if you stretch them too far.

The single defining aspect that determines the quality of your outcome and how much blurring will happen if you zoom in on a photograph that is made from a raster file is gonna be the resolution, okay? So a really high resolution raster image, you're gonna be able to zoom in on it quite a lot before you get this distortion.

If it's a low resolution raster file, you are gonna zoom in and pretty quickly, going to become very blurry, like this example that we've got here.

Let's have a look at vectors now.

So vectors are different, because vectors are built with mathematical paths, they stay crisp at any scale.

If you make a vector logo 10 times bigger, it will look just as sharp as the original.

So designers create vectors in specialist art software, which draws paths and shapes digitally, and that makes them perfect for professional graphics, branding, anything that might need to appear in multiple sizes, anything that needs to be resized without losing clarity.

Okay, so let's quickly check that you've understood what we've just been discussing with regard to particularly raster images.

So what happens when you enlarge a raster image, does it, A, get sharper and brighter, does it, B, stay the same quality, C, does it become pixelated and blurry, D, does it automatically convert to a vector? Pause the video, have a think and check back on your answer in a minute.

Well done, the correct answer is C.

When you enlarge a raster image, it becomes pixelated and blurry.

I mean, it would be great if it automatically converted to a vector, that would make a lot of people's lives quite easy when it comes to digital design.

But sadly, that's not the case.

It tends to become pixelated and blurry.

And you've probably encountered this.

I've encountered this all the time when I'm making my family photo books and albums and things like that out of my set of photos from the year, and I think, oh, that's a brilliant photo.

I make it nice and large on a page, and then I find out that the original raster image had quite a low resolution.

I've made it all big and it becomes pixelated and blurry and we can't really use it, and it's really disappointing.

So now it's time for you to have a little exploration of both raster and vector images.

So what I want you to do is I want you to open up one raster and one vector image on your computer, okay? And what I want you to do is I want you to zoom into each and compare what you see.

I want you to record your observations and try to explain why one stays sharp while the other doesn't, okay? And this will help you see the difference between the images yourself.

So make sure that you are zooming into each, make sure that you are enlarging both images.

Make sure you look really carefully at what's going on in both of them, and make sure you record the difference in the clarity between them.

And then what I want you to do, absolutely crucial, is try and explain why one of them looks better than the other.

So pause the video, have a go at this practice task, and we'll compare what we've found in just a minute.

Okay, so feeding back on what you might have seen, now, your image that you might have looked up might be quite different to this one here.

Obviously you would've chosen different vector and raster images to the ones that I've got.

But here we've got an example of, let's say Laura here on the right hand side, she's had a go at what you've just done.

And she's got this raster image of a landscape because remember, most photographs tend to be rasters, particularly, you know, photographs that we find on the internet, they tend to be rasters.

And she's thought, this looks absolutely beautiful.

Look at that mountain scene silhouetted against this beautiful sort of maybe sunrise or sunset skyline with the plane and its contrails in the sky.

It looks absolutely beautiful.

She's thought, okay, I wanna zoom in on a particular part of that landscape.

And then sadly, because it's a raster image, when she's zoomed in, it's become really pixelated and blurry, okay? And you can see that, you can see that individual pixels of color on the right hand side there.

Now she's taken another landscape here, and this is why, you know, actually landscapes are quite a good thing to compare for this task or a similar image type or images that show the similar type of thing, 'cause you can totally see the contrast here.

Now with Laura zooming in onto this vector image, you can see it actually stays so much more sharp and clean.

And that's because the vector is made using paths, not pixels.

It's not made up of those box of colors, it's made up of mathematical paths, shapes and lines.

That means it's totally scalable, much more suitable for professional printing, especially when clarity is important.

So hopefully you were able to find two images there to compare.

I'm absolutely sure you will have been able to see the difference between them when you zoomed in or increased the image size.

Hopefully you were able to explain that difference as well.

Okay, rasters made up of pixels tend to pixelate into store when you zoom in or increase their size.

Vector images using paths, mathematical paths of shapes and lines, they scale really effectively when you zoom in or make them larger, and they retain their clarity, meaning that they're really suitable for professional printing.

Brilliant, so we've explored those digital image types.

What we're going to do now is we're gonna move into the second part of the lesson.

I can't wait for this bit.

I really find this absolutely fascinating.

I really can't wait to find out the sort of digital print files that you are gonna be able to prepare because that's what we're gonna do now.

We're gonna focus on how to set up your work so that it prints out exactly as you want, because as we've mentioned already, there's nothing worse than preparing a digital print file, thinking you've got it absolutely how you want, and then when it comes to printing it, it comes out completely different how you want it.

So let's get cracking.

So to print successfully, you need to set up your files correctly.

So that means you need to choose, one, the right resolution, two, the correct file type, and three, the proper color mode.

Now, if we make these decisions correctly, we can get a print that looks so professional and beautiful.

However, if we make those decisions incorrectly, we could end up with a very disappointing finish and we'll end up with a design that doesn't print as we intended, which is always really, really disappointing.

So let's go through those three setup aspects in a little bit more detail.

So firstly, if we think about resolution, so resolution is probably, I think one of the most important settings.

So we measure resolution in dots per inch or DPI.

The higher the DPI, the more dots the printer uses and the sharper the final image looks.

So a low DPI can make an image look fuzzy or faint while a high DPI produces clear detail.

So we're always looking really for a high resolution in the images that we are using in the digital files that we're using because that means that we get a clearer, cleaner, more detailed print.

We also need to consider file types, okay? So we need to remember this.

Vectors are ideal for scalable graphics.

The problem or trickiness with them is they need to be created in digital art software.

So file types like AI, SVG, or PDF are good examples.

Now raster files, so JPEGs, PNGs, or TIFF files can also be used.

But linking back to what we saw in the previous slide, they've got to be of a high resolution to print well.

If you have a resolution of about 300 DPI, 300 dots per inch for a raster file, that is generally accepted as the standard for clear, professional printing.

But if it's lower than that, your clarity of your printing is probably not going to be high enough.

So we must consider which file type we're using, our access to different digital art software, the ease with which we can actually use that ourselves.

And if we're making a decision that actually vector's not the way to go for us, we're going to use it raster file, we must pay really careful attention to the resolution and the DPI being 300 or above.

The other thing we need to think about is color mode.

It's completely vital choice.

So design software that you use will offer different color modes, so either RGB or CMYK.

Now RGB is red, green, and blue.

So digital screens like the one you are looking at now, they use these colors to create all the different colors that you'll see, but printers are slightly different.

So printers use a CMYK color mode.

So this is cyan, magenta, yellow, and black to produce the same range of colors.

Now what this means is if you try to print an RGB file, so you create a digital file with the RGB color mode, and then you print it out, it might not always match what you saw on the screen.

So what you need to always make sure that you do is even though you are viewing your image in RGB color mode, because that's what your digital screen uses, when you print, you must set your file to CMYK color mode.

And what that means is the printer's inks can reproduce the colors correctly, absolutely vital.

So let's just check that you've understood what we've talked about there with regard to some of the choices that we need to make when it comes to creating digital images for digital printing.

So first question, what does DPI stand for in printing, is it A, digital print integration, B, dots per inch, C, dots pixels image, or D, depth per image? Pause the video and then come back when you're ready to check if you were correct.

Well done, the answer is of course B, it's dots per inch.

The higher the DPI, the higher the dots per inch on a raster image, higher the quality of the image and more it can be enlarged or zoomed in on.

So we also need to consider that finally, when you save your design, you must export it in the right format.

So for example, if you save it as a PDF, that keeps the quality intact and ensures the file is ready for printing.

And if you choose the wrong format, that could mean losing detail or ending up with colors that don't match.

So you always need to think carefully about the file type that you export.

So right now, it'd be a good idea for you to either think to yourself or discuss with a partner how you might use different file types for different types of printing.

So think about the use case of what you might be printing when you might want to be printing out an image and have a little think about what type of file would be most appropriate for that type of printing.

And in a second, I'll show you a discussion between two pupils where they do this that might be similar to the one that you've had.

So pause the video and have a discussion or have a little think yourself and then hit play when you're ready to go again.

So you can see our discussion here between Sofia and Jun.

And Jun is saying, well, you know, "If I want to print off an image to put into my sketchbook to annotate around it," something we're all really familiar with, Jun is saying that they could use a raster image saved as a JPEG file because it doesn't need to be printed off to a professional level of quality, okay? With a JPEG, a raster, it's not gonna be at that professional level unless it's 300 DPI, but they're just printing it off to put in their sketchbook, maybe a photo of a sculpture or a painting or some other artist's piece of work.

I remember doing this myself when I did my GCSE.

My sketchbooks were chock-a-block full of different artists' work and I spent ages printing them out off the internet.

All of those with JPEG raster images that I would then annotate around.

Now, Sofia said, "Well, in contrast, if you're gonna print graphics like a logo that needs to be scalable," actually that's the time at which she would be using a vector file, such as a.

SVG file.

And that way it will have the same clarity at any size.

If you make it bigger, it's gonna retain the clarity because of the way that a vector file works, the way that it's made up of those lines and shapes and the mathematical paths rather than pixels in contrast with a raster JPEG.

So knowledge of digital printing techniques allowed artists to broaden the reach of their art to more audiences.

So, Wen Redmond is a contemporary mixed media and fiber artist based in the United States of America, and since 1976, she's combined photography, painting, and stitching to create artworks that explore nature and memory.

Now, Redmond is known for pioneering digital fiber techniques such as holographic maps, textured photographs, and innovative collage methods.

Her work merges digital processes with traditional fiber art resulting in ethereal layered pieces that invite viewers to engage with them deeply.

Michael Menchaca, who was born in 1981 in Texas, in the United States, is a ***** Xicanx, non-binary interdisciplinary artist known for their work in paintings, sculpture, printmaking, video, and installation.

Their practice explores identity, family history, cultural memory, and the Xicano Latina experience, often addressing migration, masculinity and social inequality.

Menchaca blends influences from Mesoamerican codices, European bestiaries, and digital media to create multimedia installations that engage with anti-colonial, anti-racist, and anti-capitalist ideas, positioning their art as a practice of de-colonial resistance and cultural storytelling.

And it's absolutely fascinating.

I really urge you to have a look at their work.

Hassan Hajjaj, born in Morocco in 1961, they live between Morocco and London.

He's known for his vibrant, eclectic photography and mixed media work.

Blending North African culture, fashion, and pop arts, he creates bold portraits that offer a critical yet playful take on consumer society.

Now, drawing from Moroccan souk culture, what Hajjaj likes to do is juxtapose eastern and western elements to reinterpret tradition and identity.

So his signature frames, crafted from repurposed materials, like tiles and cans, echo the intricate patterns of Islamic decorative art.

So I really urge you to check out the art from these particular artists.

It's absolutely incredible what they're able to do using digital printing techniques alongside other mixed media and other techniques.

Now, digital printing also enables artists to push the boundaries of the creative processes.

Nkem Okwechime, who was born in South London in the UK is an artist, a printmaker based in Glasgow, he has a Nigerian father and a Scottish mother.

And having been born in London, they later relocated to Dundee in Scotland.

His multidisciplinary practice spans screen printings, ceramics, textiles, and photography, exploring themes of identity, heritage, and diaspora.

Drawing inspiration from his Igbo lineage and the DADA Movement, Okwechime's "Ikenga" series reflects on cultural contrast and personal narratives.

Wolfgang Tillmans, born in the late '60s in Germany, is a photographer, an artist known for portraits, abstraction, and political work, rose to fame in the 1990s for his depictions of youth and LGBTQ plus culture, was the first non-British Turner Prize winner, which he achieved in 2000.

His style is characterized by diverse approach, ranging from intimate, candid portraits to abstract images that explore light, color, and form, often challenging traditional photographic conventions.

And then we have Heather Dewey-Hagborg, born in Pennsylvania in America.

She's an interdisciplinary artist and bio artist known for her provocative work at the intersection of art, science and technology.

So a really fascinating mix of disciplines.

So she uses techniques such as DNA analysis, 3D printing, and genetic data to explore identity, privacy, and surveillance and questions assumptions about biology and social constructs.

So Dewey-Hagborg's projects, including "Stranger Visions," reconstruct faces from genetic material, raising ethical and philosophical questions about genetics and individuality.

Her work engages audiences in critical dialogues on technology, consent, and the implications of emerging biotechnologies.

So once again, three absolutely fascinating artists in this space that I urge you to go and have a look at in your own time for some inspiration.

So now that we've heard about some of those incredible artists using digital printing, let's just try and recall that we can check our understanding of why it's important to choose the right file type before printing.

So is the answer to this question A, it saves computer memory, B, to make the image look brighter on screen, C, to prevent color mixing in paint, or D, to ensure the design prints clearly and at the correct scale? So have a think about that question.

Pause the video, press play when you're ready to see if you were right.

So of course, as we know, it's important to choose the right file type before printing because D, it ensures the design prints clearly and at the correct scale.

Great work so far.

Now it's our final practice task, and this is gonna be a really interesting one.

I can't wait to hear what you are able to come up with.

So what I want you to do is I want you to open whatever design software you are using, okay? And I want you to create a simple graphic.

So it could be text or a really simple image, but what you must make sure you do is you set it to the correct resolution, must make sure that you select CMYK as the color mode, and then I want you to export it as a print-ready file.

So remembering that we set the correct resolution so that the quality is high, the CMYK color mode, so that it prints accurately based on what we see from screen to printer, and ensure that we are able to export it as a print-ready file, like a PDF or similar.

And this is gonna give you some firsthand experience of preparing your work properly.

So pause the video, have a go at this practice task, and then we'll see an example that another student has prepared.

Press play when you're ready to resume.

So for example, okay, we've got Andeep's example piece of digital typography here.

And what he's done is he's experimented with vector paths.

So he's made sure that he's used a vector method in his design software of producing this image so that the resolution is completely scalable.

It doesn't matter how big or small it is, the quality will always be there.

And then what he did is he exported it as a CMYK print-ready file so that it can be printed out accurately, looking the same as it does on screen, as it does in his print.

And that's the process you should have been aiming for.

Hopefully you are able to use your design software to create some form of graphic, you were able to set it to the correct resolution, select CMYK as the color mode, and then export it as a print-ready file.

You might have even been able to print it out and check that it worked, which would've been really useful as well.

So let's summarize our lesson today.

You've done a great job learning about some really tricky, intricate and technically demanding things, but I think you've been able to learn the following.

So digital technology we know can expand traditional printmaking methods.

So the type of file you use, vector or raster, directly affects the quality of your print.

Hopefully you remember that preparing files correctly by setting the right resolution, file type, and color mode will ensure success.

And finally, hopefully you remember that print resolution and scale make a big difference to the clarity of your final outcome.

So hopefully you enjoyed creating your digital print file today and that you were able to follow the steps that we outlined.

Looking forward for you to come to another Oak National Art lesson in the future where you are able to use those skills once again, goodbye.