Hi,

I'm new to Krita (using Linux) (former  Adobe user), I am trying to create simple illustrations using Krita and Inkscape to put online for people to download and print at home - now this is simple things like wall prints or birthday cards etc. I would like to simply offer one jpg a one pdf file so everyone should be able to open it and print it if they like.

To do this I'm trying to figure out a workflow for creating a print ready pdf and jpg - I read on related forums that the best thing to do is to export a tiff image from Krita and use Scribus to create a pdf - also - that if the final result is a print that I should be using CMYK color mode. Initially I attempted to work in CMYK 16 bit and export tiff, which just did not work at all, either it saved as a blank image or it came out just wrong(I tried this in several versions of Krita). Changing to CMYK 8bit meant I could export as tiff but the colors came out all wrong.

Further research in some Krita manuals made me even doubt if I should be using CMYK to work in from scratch or if I should be using RGB (exporting to tiff in RGB doesn't seem to present any issues). I dont know even how much this matters since everybody's monitors and printers will be set up differently so inadvertently there will be color changes - I just would like to have confidence that anything that people will see on their screens will more or less resemble their prints.

Once I got into monitor callibration and set up it started giving me a headache - I will be the first one to admit that I'm technologically challenged and obviously dont know much about color management.

If anybody has any suggestions on what color modes to use or how to use them,  how to properly export high quality images in Krita and pdfs in Scribus or any other workflow suggestions or links to manuals or tutorials to study it would be greatly appreciated! 

Thanks!

There are people on this forum who are very experienced with 16-bit colour depth, CMYK profiles, tiff files and high fidelity/quality printing and they would be able to tell you the whys and why-nots of various methods and formats.

However, what immediately strikes me is your requirements and the 'target demographic':

porcupine wrote:
I am trying to create simple illustrations using Krita and Inkscape to put online for people to download and print at home - now this is simple things like wall prints or birthday cards etc. I would like to simply offer one jpg a one pdf file so everyone should be able to open it and print it if they like.
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I just would like to have confidence that anything that people will see on their screens will more or less resemble their prints.

For an 'ordinary' person at home, printing on an 'ordinary' printer, all you need to deliver is an 8-bit RGB image of A4 300dpi (about 3500 x 2500 px), ideally as a .png image or maybe a high quality (low compression) .jpg image. (I'm assuming that your target demographic would only need A4 or smaller images.) Their PC printing app and printer driver would take care of the rest of it.

Working with 16-bit colour depths may be of noticeable benefit if you're doing multi layer artwork with blending and colour adjustments but the final result should be fine after exporting and then converting the result to 8-bit depth.

If you're familiar with Inkscape then this would be ideal for you for the vector artwork side of things but Krita has vector artwork tools and text as well. Passing raster/vector work via .png/.svg from Krita to Inkscape and passing vector work via .png or .svg from Inkscape to Krita is perfectly doable if you want to.

I'm not at all familiar with Scribus and use of .pdf output but I thought that was only needed for flowing text around image boxes and multi-column layout and similar types of work.

I suggest that you produce some detailed 8-bit RGB artwork with mixed raster/vector elements and a wide range of colours and upload it as a .png file to a website such as Deviantart (or wherever) and then download it and print it to see the printed result. Also, ask someone else to download it and print it and give you their opinion.

I may have totally misunderstood what you're trying to do. If so, can you give more details and perhaps post links to examples of your work?

Hi,

the work I'm trying to offer online for people to download and print is pretty varied - from simple text based wall prints (quotes etc), to cards (5x7inch standard) with text plus illustrations to more illustrated wall prints (with more complex illustrations - lots of layers, blending etc.). Everything is A3 or smaller. To start with I wanted to use etsy (before exploring other options), I noted that other people doing the same on etsy offer a jpg and a pdf for each download (sort of like a standard thing to do) - hence me trying to get a pdf.

I think you got it right with the target group and I might be needlessly overthinking things somewhat. I also know that other people don't seem to notice the prints color changes much (I do).

Anyway, I dont have an online portfolio (never tried to monetize any of my work before). And I didn't put anything online yet as I didn't feel my work was ready before I figure this out. I do have one card online here (as a simple example):

https://pin.it/il5a2ovn562bfo

Thank you very much for your help!

I think you are overthinking things at this stage and a few simple test runs with friends/relatives for feedback would be a good idea at first.

Looking at that Valentine's card, there is something that occurs to me: For detailed colour artwork and photo-artwork intended for printing, it would be a very good idea do do softproofing, to check that the intended print wouldn't have problems with any of the colours in the image.
The manual covers most things and here it is: https://docs.krita.org/en/user_manual/s ... t-proofing

I've never done this but it seems straightforward and there are many people here who know about it if you have any future problems or questions.

Good luck, make lots of money and please post a link to a freebie Christmas card for us