How to Judge a Sergey Solomko Print Before You Buy

Resolution, paper, colour fidelity and honest sizing separate a print worth hanging from one worth returning. Here is what to check, and in what order.

Auvrique Editorial · Fine Art Editions

The short answer

A high-quality Solomko print starts at a source file of 300 DPI at full print size, which for a 60 cm wide sheet means roughly 7,000 pixels across. Check the stated resolution, the paper weight (200 gsm or above for posters, 350 to 400 gsm for canvas), and whether the seller shows close-up detail crops rather than only the full image.

Start With the Source File

The single biggest difference between a good reproduction and a bad one is invisible until it is too late. Every print descends from a digital file, and if that file was scanned at low resolution or lifted from a small web image, no printer can rescue it. The tell is softness. Faces blur first, then fine linework, then anything with a texture. Solomko worked in watercolour and delicate graphic media, which is exactly the kind of detail a poor file destroys.

Ask one question before anything else. What is the resolution at the size being sold? A credible seller states it plainly. The benchmark for judging art print quality is 300 DPI at the printed dimensions, not 300 DPI at some smaller size scaled up. A 60 cm wide print at 300 DPI needs a file around 7,000 pixels across. If a listing quotes resolution without tying it to a size, treat the number as meaningless. Signs of high-resolution reproductions include visible brush texture, clean edges on fine lines, and detail crops the seller is willing to show.

Read the Materials, Not the Marketing

Paper and ink do the visible work. For a framed poster, look for a stated paper weight of at least 200 gsm with a matte or lightly textured finish, which suits watercolour tonality far better than gloss. Gloss flatters a thumbnail and betrays a wall. For canvas, 350 to 400 gsm cotton or poly-cotton blend is the ordinary standard, and the weave should be fine enough not to swallow small details.

Ink matters as much as paper. Pigment-based inks resist fading for decades; dye-based inks do not, especially near a window. Solomko's palette leans on soft flesh tones and muted backgrounds, the first colours to drift. A seller who names their ink type is usually a seller who has thought about the rest. If you have settled on the format, it helps to compare canvas and framed poster options side by side before committing, since the same file reads differently on each canvas edition. The checklist below compresses all of it.

What to verify

The file resolution is stated in DPI at the actual print size
Paper weight is at least 200 gsm for posters, 350 gsm for canvas
Inks are pigment-based rather than dye-based
The seller shows close-up crops, not only the full image

Check the Colour and the Small Print

Colour fidelity is where cheap reproductions fail quietly. Compare the listing image against independent reproductions of the same work, ideally from museum or archive sources. Look for shifts in the background temperature and in skin tones, which drift toward orange or grey when a file has been over-saturated to look lively on a phone screen. A faithful print looks slightly quieter than a retail thumbnail. That is correct, not a defect.

Finally, read the practical details the way you would for any purchase. The stated dimensions should match the original's proportions, since cropping to fit a standard frame size is a common shortcut that silently changes the composition. Clear policies on returns and what happens if a print arrives damaged are worth more than any badge on a product page, and the refund policy should say plainly what recourse you have. For a sense of what a careful edition looks like in practice, the framed framed poster edition and the canvas edition of a comparable work show how listings should present resolution, materials and sizing without padding.

A faithful print always looks slightly quieter than the thumbnail that sold it.

Element	Acceptable	Weak signal
Resolution	300 DPI at full print size	DPI quoted with no size attached
Poster paper	200 gsm or heavier, matte finish	Gloss paper, weight unstated
Canvas	350 to 400 gsm, fine weave	Unstated weight, coarse texture
Inks	Pigment-based	Ink type not disclosed

Minimum standards worth insisting on

Key takeaways

Insist on 300 DPI resolution at the exact size being sold, not at a smaller reference size.
Watercolour detail is the first casualty of a low-resolution file, so examine fine linework in close-up crops.
Pigment inks and matte paper above 200 gsm protect the soft tonal range the work depends on.
Compare the listing image against independent reproductions to catch over-saturated colour before it hangs on your wall.

Related questions

What resolution should a large Solomko print have?

At least 300 DPI at the printed dimensions. For a 60 cm wide print that means a source file of roughly 7,000 pixels across, and proportionally more for larger sheets. A seller who cannot state this figure for the size you want is selling from a file they have not checked themselves.

Do Solomko's delicate lines survive printing well?

They survive only if the source scan is high resolution and the paper has a matte or lightly textured surface. Gloss paper and coarse canvas weaves both tend to blur fine graphic detail. Requesting or viewing a close-up crop of a detailed area is the fastest way to check.

Is a more expensive print automatically better quality?

No. Price often reflects framing, branding or size rather than file quality. The verifiable markers are resolution at print size, paper weight, ink type and honest sizing. A mid-priced print that discloses all four will outperform an expensive one that discloses none.

Sergey Solomko at Auvrique

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