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Digital Art

— Creating art with tablets, styluses, and software
64 members Created Feb 2026

Pixel art for icons and UI: constraints and best practices

I want to document the technical aspects of preparing digital art for print because this is an area where I see digital artists lose a lot of work quality through avoidable mistakes.

Color space: always work in the color space that matches your output. For professional print, this is CMYK or a specific ICC profile provided by the printer. For home printing, sRGB is usually correct. For display only, sRGB is standard.

Resolution: 300 DPI at the final print size. Not 300 DPI at a smaller size that gets scaled up. The physical pixels in the file need to match the final output density.

Bleed and safe zone: if the print will be trimmed (almost all commercial printing), add bleed (typically 3mm) and keep important content out of the trim zone. Clip Studio Paint has built-in support for these. Procreate requires manual bleed management.

Proof before final delivery: always request a physical or digital proof from the printer before running a full print run. Monitor calibration ensures your screen is accurate but not every monitor is calibrated.

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