Anyone here heard about printing your photos with Engineering Prints? It’s a cost effective way to print your pictures, especially if you want them to be in a poster size or framed. However, in this blog post, I will share with you my mistakes that I made with printing my Engineering print.
Here I am once again, making mistakes so that you don’t have to. You’re welcome. I’m joking. I want you to avoid these mistakes and not waste money when getting your Engineering print.
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Contents
Here are 3 mistakes to avoid with Engineering Prints:
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1. Expect High Quality Photos
Engineering Prints are meant to be for blue prints or whatnot. It is not meant to print pictures, so please do not expect high quality photos. When I printed mine, I had a little expectation that it would turn out somewhat similar to the picture I sent to my neighborhood office supply retail store.
It came out to be lighter than my picture and it is not the best quality. If your picture is a little fuzzy to begin with, it will be apparent when blown up to scale.
To be fair, my picture from taken from a phone which looked pretty good. However, it was not a professional picture so I had to lower the resolution on Photoshop to make it look presentable in the size that I wanted.
If you do not mind the fuzziness or you have a really high resolution picture, this would be great. I would be okay with it if the size was accurate (which I will talk about in the next point).
2. Sizing Matters
Yes, the size of your picture matters. No, I am not talking about how big your Engineering Prints are but the actual picture that you sent.
What I did was I had this 2 feet by 3 feet frame from Walmart and I wanted to put my picture in it. However, I am too lazy to buy the white border so I decided to Photoshop it.
I wanted a 2 to 3 inches border around my picture so when I inserted my picture on Photoshop, I made sure that there was enough space around my picture.
What I did not take into consideration is that when I uploaded my picture on the online site to print, it was in 8.5″ by 11″. It changed how my picture looked and printed it in a funny way.
If anyone out there knows how to ensure that my picture stays the same size that I made it on Photoshop, please let me know in the comments below. I think it kept the same pixels but not the size that I intended for it to be.
Or maybe you are smarter than me and know how to do it. If you are printing it with a local printer, be sure to check carefully with the sizing of your picture. Mine turned out a little flatter and smaller than I hoped. I feel like if I just made the whole picture 2′ by 3′ without the border, it might work out even better.
I ended up printing it again, but as a digital photo print and it was a lot better. Maybe I will talk about that in a future post.
3. Wrinkled Paper Effect
This one was an unexpected one for sure. When I went to pick up my Engineering print, it was rolled up. It is pretty standard, even for photo prints.
However, due to the thin paper, it was wrinkled.
I was so disappointed.
Even after putting it in the frame, I could clearly see the lines of where it was rolled.
Either it was because of the lower quality in the paper, or the staff who was rolling the paper. It did not look good at all.
If I was really frugal, I would have accepted the lower quality in print and the smaller print. However, I could not accept the wrinkles.
So, if you are going ahead with your Engineering prints, ask them to not roll your paper or pay a little more for a thicker paper so that it would not have wrinkles like mine did.
What I love about Engineering Prints:
Now that you know what mistakes to avoid with engineering prints, I want to tell you my positive experiences with Engineering prints. You can not only learn from my mistakes (better me than you) and fully enjoy the experience of having one in your home or office.
1. Pricing is pretty good
The price is really cheap. When I printed mine at a popular office supply retail chain, it was $4 including tax for a 2 feet by 3 feet engineering print. That is really hard to beat for a picture of that size.
If you are on a budget and want to get beautiful pictures printed (on a somewhat lower quality if you don’t mind), engineering prints are definitely something you should consider to put in your home. What you can do is to get a nice frame either with a coupon from Michaels or even at a thrift store, and it would be perfect.
The frame that I originally wanted to put the print is from Walmart. You can check those places out too for a good frame for your engineering print picture.
2. Options for color
I am not sure about yours, but the store I printed mine at had the option for color. Though I did not choose this option and cannot tell you about the quality, it is nice to know that if I ever want that, it is possible.
However, similar to the black and white version, I would expect it to be amazing but decent enough.
If you need to display a temporary poster or a picture that you might want to replace in the near future, this could be a good alternative instead of spending a lot of money only to replace it soon.
Overall, the option for color in the engineering print is great, especially for pictures and posters of the sizes available.
3. You can get creative with your pictures
Once you have decided that you are going ahead with getting your engineering prints, now it is time to choose your pictures. If you are framing them, you can choose a picture that you already own.
Some suggestions of pictures you can print include your family, your dog, a vacation that you went on (that was my picture), a historical building you passed by the other day, or something of significance to you.
Another idea is to get a picture that matches your aesthetics or the theme of the space you’re putting this picture in. I am sharing two ways you can get pictures below.
If you are looking for royalty-free and actually free pictures, here are some websites (not an affiliate):
These are really good quality pictures so be sure to check them out if you want some free pictures.
If you prefer to customize your artwork or have a really nice design piece, I highly recommend Etsy. Here are some of the design prints that I really like:
Via Sara Cristina Design
Via Jackilyn Handiworks
Click on the picture above that speaks to you. You can find so many different types of prints available on Etsy. You can buy them, download them instantly, and then send them to your local print shop for printing. I am so excited for you to get started.
Thanks for reading. If you are interested in other home decor projects, please check the following blog posts out:
If you like what you read, please pin the image below and share it with others. Thank you so much.
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