Printable PDF As A Gift? Why Printables Are Great Gifts!

April 30, 2021 5 min read

Printable As A Gift? Why Printables Are Great Gifts!

There are lots of great things about printable wall art, but is it a good gift? After all, a printable isn't the finished article - you can't hang it on your wall, you can't wrap it up beautifully and see the recipient's anticipation as they unwrap it. Actually, you can! And you get to give it twice!

There are lots of reasons why printable PDF wall art makes a great gift. Printables are digital files (usually in a PDF, PNG or JPG file format) that you download to print at home or via an online or local printer.

Read our blog for how to print printable wall art.

Why buy printable art?

There are a lot of good reasons to choose downloadable art:

The cost is lower than a physical print (but remember, you'll still need to make the actual print)
Delivery is extremely reliable (a digital file can't get lost in the post!)
Delivery is quick! (you don't have to wait for it to printed and processed through a postal system)
Make as many copies as you like! And print at different sizes!
Choose which material to print it on
Protection against damage (keep a backup copy of the printable file in case the print you make from it gets damaged)

Printable Wall Art As A Gift

Printable art is a thoughtful way of buying a personalised print as a gift for someone. In some ways it can be better than buying physical prints.

Personalised prints like family crosswords or personalised name prints are great gifts because they have a strong connection to the person you're giving to. A personalised gift shows that you've treated the recipient as an individual. It shows that you've taken the time to think about them personally and choose a gift that means something special to them.

Choosing printable wall art often tends to fall into one of two scenarios:

You're not sure how the recipient would prefer their personalised print to be displayed.
You're running short of time but you still want to get a special gift.

A printable PDF gift helps out in both situations...

Personal Preferance For Displaying Art

A printable gets round the problem of how best to display a piece of art. Why? Because a printable allows the recipient to decide for themselves. If they think it would look best printed on canvas rather than paper, they can do that! If they want something really modern, perhaps they'd opt for acrylic.

If they're going to hang the art in their house, they are in the best position to decide how it's going to look and which room it would look best in. So you're not stuck having to decide for them before they've even seen the picture.

Stuck For Time

Yes, a printable definitely helps you out here! It's easy too. Once you've chosen your printable, just add the personalisation details and make your order. And even though it's a quick and easy process, the gift you give is no less thoughtful, personal and unique.

The printable file can be in your inbox much quicker than waiting for a physical print to be made and then working its way through a postal system, and it won't get damaged or lost along the way.

A side benefit of getting a printable if you're pushed for time is that you can discuss with the recipient the best way print get it printed - it's another sign that you've thought about their preferences when choosing their gift.

How To Give Printable Art As A Gift

One of the wonderful things about personalised prints as gifts is the moment of unwrapping. The anticipation of the recipient is matched by your own anticipation of their reaction, because you know you're giving something a bit special.

But with a printable PDF you've got nothing physical to give. It's just a digital file, which isn't very exciting.

There are things you can do to make the gift-giving moment special, even for a printable:

Make a physical print (even if it's not the final version that ends up hanging on a wall). Add a note so it's clear that the finished version of the print can ultimately be made on different materials - paper, canvas, wood, metal. Then the recipient can have the fun of deciding what would suit them best.
Tear It Up! Make a physical print on standard, cheap office paper (it doesn't need to be in colour if you don't have access to a colour printer). Then tear it up into several pieces, shuffle them up and put them in an envelope. Put the envelope into another envelope and add a note that the recipient has to successfully complete their 'personalised jigsaw puzzle' to qualify for the finished print - when they do, you can ask about the details of how they'd like it to be printed.
Make a little gift box and fold up a handwritten note inside that tells the recipient about their gift - unfolding a little note always has a sense of 'what's all this about...'
Zoom Into The Detail. On a personal computer or a tablet - something with a screen of a decent size - you can view the printable, you can scroll around and zoom in to see the finer detail in the artwork. This is something we don't always do when looking at a physical print and, depending on the print, it can be a lovely way to look at art (example: personalised coordinate print).

Give It Twice

Giving a printable means you get to give the gift twice. Once when you give the printable (make it a special moment!) and then again when the finished, physical version of the print arrives. You get double the anticipation - the surprise anticipation of the original gift ('what's it going to be?') and then the more expectant anticipation of the physical print ('how's it going to look?').

The recipient also gets the fun of being involved with the decisions about their new art - like where to hang it and how to display it.

You've successfully made the gift-giving of personalised printable art into a process rather than as a one-off event.

And, once the final version has arrived, there's the ongoing pleasure of the wall art itself: looking at it, talking about it, showing it to other people.

Check out why wall art so popular.

Check out the elevencorners selection of printable wall art.