We do our best to create a beautiful reproduction of your image but please remember it may not be an exact match due to the many variables involved in making a tile image. Here are some things to keep in mind when thinking about image reproduction on tile.
If you want your own photographic image or custom artwork printed on tile you may email it to us. Which digital format you use is not important but we prefer uncompressed TIF or PSD formats. Each image should have an embedded ICC Profile. We cannot guarantee reasonable color fidelity if no ICC profile is embedded. In such a case we will use our artistic and technical “best guess” to attempt a pleasing color representation of your image.
You may send JPG images as long as they are not overly compressed. It is difficult to remove severe JPG compression artifacts from images once they are present. Consult your camera manual for information on setting the image capture format and size. Usually the highest setting is an uncompressed TIF or JPEG image. This is the one to use for mural printing. When shooting images for mural printing, it is best to avoid high-contrast lighting situations. Use a fill flash to lighten dark shadows. Remember, there is no substitute for good lighting.
Even with an embedded color profile there will be color shifts as the image is reproduced on tile due to several technical factors. This is especially true with Fired Ceramic Tile. The color space of that material is restricted to a subset of colors that can be captured digitally. When reproduced with ceramic pigment a noticable color shift will occur. This is less true of Dye Sublimation Tile, but even with that material some posterization can occur.
Please refer to the sample mural on the Murals page. The image used for this mural will need to print slightly larger than the mural size (so the artwork will cover the entire surface of the tiles). Here’s the technical part:
There are few digital cameras on the market that can capture this many pixels. To achieve a digital image of this resolution usually requires a medium format film negative or positive that is subsequently scanned in a high-quality film scanner. Original artwork will need to be professionally photographed to yield pleasing results in a mural. We offer both of these services at reasonable and competitive rates.
But what if you have a digital image that you really love and want to make into a mural? We can interpolate the digital file to increase the print size. This process is achieved with an advanced image interpolation software. The results vary in success depending on the original image quality and size. There is a fee for this process. Be aware that there are limits to the sizes achievable with this software technique in terms of acceptable image quality. If you have a low-rez image that you would like to print as a mural, email it to us. We will analyze it for you at no charge and email our suggestions about the possible mural sizes achievable with your image.
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