I’m going to paint a scenario for you because I think most of us have been here.
It’s 8pm on a Thursday. Your friend’s birthday is Saturday. You completely forgot because you’ve been busy with work, the dog needed a vet visit on Monday, the boiler made a concerning noise on Wednesday, and your phone has been pinging with school WhatsApp messages about a cake sale you’re now somehow involved in. You haven’t bought a gift. You haven’t even thought about buying a gift. And now it’s too late for delivery.
You could panic-buy a candle from the nearest supermarket. You could pretend you ordered something and it got lost in the post (we’ve all used this one, don’t pretend you haven’t). Or you could do something that takes ten minutes, costs under a tenner, and actually feels personal and thoughtful.
That’s printable wall art. And it might be the most underrated gift format in existence.
What actually is it?
When you buy a printable from us, you’re buying a digital file — a high-resolution PDF at 300 DPI, which is print-shop quality. We email it to you (or, for personalised items, we create it and email it within 24 hours). You download it. You print it. That’s it.
“But where do I print it?” Literally anywhere. A decent home inkjet printer will do the job for A4 size. For larger prints, any high street print shop — Snappy Snaps, Boots, Hobbycraft — will print an A3 from a PDF for a few quid. Some people use online print services like Photobox or ASDA Photo. The point is, the printing part is easy and cheap.
Then you stick it in a frame. IKEA frames start at about £3. Hobbycraft have a good range. Even Poundland do decent frames for A4 prints. Total cost including the download, printing, and frame? Under £15 for a personalised, professional piece of wall art. Try getting that from a custom pet portrait artist.
Why it’s actually better (sometimes)
I’m not going to pretend that a printable is better than a hand-painted oil portrait of your cockapoo. If you’ve got £200 and six weeks to wait, go for the oil painting. But for the rest of us — the ones operating on real budgets and real timelines — printables have some serious advantages.
It’s instant. You buy it, you get it. No waiting three to five working days for Royal Mail to do whatever Royal Mail does with small parcels. For personalised items like our Personalised Pet Portrait, we create your custom design within 24 hours and email the files. Still faster than any physical delivery.
You choose the size. Our downloads come with multiple size options built in — typically A4 and A3, sometimes more. A 5x7” for a desk? Print it. A massive A2 statement piece? Print it. The file works for whatever you need. You’re not locked into one size like you are with a physical product.
It’s eco-friendly. No packaging. No shipping materials. No delivery van driving to your house. Just electrons and paper. If you care about environmental impact, printables are about as low-footprint as a gift can get.
Last-minute? No problem. This is the big one. Digital downloads don’t care about your poor planning. They’re available 24/7, they arrive in minutes, and the person receiving the gift never needs to know you bought it at 11pm the night before.
Our printable range
We’ve got three personalised printables that cover the big emotional moments in a pet owner’s life.
The Personalised Pet Portrait is our most versatile option. You send us your pet’s name and a photo, plus an optional poem or special message, and we create a custom portrait. It works as a celebration gift, a memorial, a birthday present, or a “just because my dog is amazing and deserves to be on the wall” purchase. From £9.99.
The “The Day We Met” Adoption Print celebrates the moment you found each other. It’s personalised with your pet’s name, adoption date, and the town where it happened. Rescue dog and cat owners go absolutely wild for this one. We’ve had people order it years after the adoption just because they never had anything to mark the occasion. It’s available as a digital download, an A3 poster, or in a wooden frame.
The Rainbow Bridge Memorial Portrait is for when a pet has passed. It’s a sensitive, beautiful tribute that you can create and send to someone quickly — which matters, because sometimes the most meaningful gifts are the ones that arrive when the grief is still fresh. Digital download from £9.99.
The framing question
People always ask about framing, so here’s the honest rundown.
Budget option: IKEA FISKBO frames. They come in every common size, they cost between £1 and £5, and they look clean and modern. Perfectly good for most prints.
Mid-range: Hobbycraft or Amazon. Wooden frames, white frames, black frames, gold frames — whatever matches your decor. Usually £8-£15 for an A3 frame.
Premium: Get it framed at a local framing shop. They’ll cut a mount, use proper glass, and the result looks genuinely gallery-quality. Costs more (£20-£40 typically) but it transforms a printable into something that looks like it cost ten times what it did.
Whichever route you go, we recommend printing on matte or satin photo paper for the best finish. Glossy works too but can get glare from certain angles.
The environmental angle
I don’t want to bang on about this because nobody likes being lectured, but it is worth noting: printable wall art is one of the most sustainable gift options available. There’s no physical production until you choose to print it. No packaging waste. No failed delivery attempts. No returns shipping. The carbon footprint is, for all practical purposes, zero until ink meets paper.
For anyone trying to make more thoughtful purchasing decisions — and a lot of our customers tell us they are — that matters.
Try it
If you’ve never bought a printable before, our digital downloads are a great place to start. Browse the full range in our digital downloads collection or explore the personalised collection for custom options. Everything starts at £9.99, and we think you’ll be genuinely surprised by the quality.
And if you do print one and frame it, we’d love to see how it looks in your home. Tag us on social media — it genuinely makes our day.