business-ecomm_clubhouse/_subsections/02-source_and_choose/S02|L13 - midjourney pt4 - turn midjourney art into hires.org

#+title: S02|L13 - turn midjourney art into high-res images to print & sell
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* Links
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- [[../../toc.org][TOC - ecomm clubhouse]]
- [[https://jellyfin.ronnyabraham.com/web/index.html#/details?id=d5c4bc7a653e919db2e4186326bfd340&serverId=99488804638e465693eed17924c57b60][video]]

* Notes
- by default midjourney images are too low res to be used in POD

** max quality of images
- generally 1024x1024
- if you are generating a design with multiple objects try to design each one individual for higher pixel quality

** removing backgrounds
- canva
- photoroom

** upscaling the image
- imglarger.com
- upscale.media


* Review - Turning Midjourney Images Into Print-Ready Files

** Summary
Midjourney images are not automatically large enough for print.

To use them for print-on-demand, you usually need to:
- download the chosen image
- remove the background
- upscale the image
- upload the final PNG to Printify

** Core Problem
By default, Midjourney images may be too small for high-quality printing.

Example:
- square Midjourney image: about 1024px × 1024px
- good enough for viewing
- often not good enough for print

** Important Print Quality Rule
When creating a design with multiple elements, generate each element separately if possible.

Example:
If creating solar system stickers:
- do not generate all planets on one sheet
- generate each planet individually
- upscale each planet individually
- combine them later in Canva or another editor

** Why
If all planets are generated on one 1024px square image, each planet only gets a small fraction of the total pixels.

That means:
- lower resolution per planet
- worse print quality
- harder upscaling

Better:
- Mars gets its own image
- Jupiter gets its own image
- Earth gets its own image
- each image starts larger
- each image upscales better

** Multi-Element Design Checklist [0/5]
- [ ] identify each separate design element
- [ ] generate each element separately
- [ ] download each element separately
- [ ] upscale each element separately
- [ ] combine final elements into one design

** Downloading A Midjourney Image

Midjourney gives four image options.

Numbering:
- image 1 = top left
- image 2 = top right
- image 3 = bottom left
- image 4 = bottom right

To upscale/download one:
- click =U1=, =U2=, =U3=, or =U4=
- open the upscaled version
- open it in browser
- save the image

** Editing Before Upscaling
Sometimes Midjourney images contain small mistakes.

Examples:
- extra dots
- unwanted marks
- strange artifacts
- background clutter
- odd details

You can edit these before or after background removal.

** Background Removal
Midjourney images usually do not have transparent backgrounds.

For print-on-demand, you often need:
- PNG file
- transparent background

Otherwise, the background prints as a box.

** Canva Pro Background Removal
If you have Canva Pro, this is one of the easiest options.

Workflow:
- upload image to Canva
- select image
- use Background Remover
- export as PNG
- select transparent background

Note:
Transparent PNG export requires Canva Pro.

** Free Background Removal Option
Use PhotoRoom for free background removal.

Workflow:
- go to PhotoRoom
- upload image
- let it remove the background
- download the transparent PNG

Good for:
- simple objects
- clean backgrounds
- fast workflow

** Background Removal Checklist [0/4]
- [ ] upload image to Canva or PhotoRoom
- [ ] remove background
- [ ] confirm no box remains
- [ ] download as transparent PNG

** Upscaling
After removing the background, upscale the image.

Upscaling increases the usable print size.

Old problem:
Making a small image bigger stretched the pixels and caused blur.

AI upscaling:
- redraws missing detail
- adds new pixels intelligently
- keeps the image sharper
- makes the image more suitable for print

** Upscaling Tools Mentioned
- AI Image Enlarger
- Gigapixel
- Upscale.media
- Canva upscaler

** AI Image Enlarger
Good results, but uses credits.

Free account:
- limited free credits
- usually 2x or 4x options

Paid account:
- more credits
- may allow 8x upscaling

** Gigapixel
Higher upfront cost, but useful if upscaling many images.

Good for:
- serious POD workflow
- repeated upscaling
- avoiding monthly credit limits

** Upscale Amount
Common starting point:
- 4x upscale

Use 4x when:
- image will be used on stickers
- image will be combined with other elements
- image does not need to cover a huge print area

Use 8x when:
- image will be printed large
- image is the main design
- product has a large print area

** Upscaling Checklist [0/5]
- [ ] use transparent PNG
- [ ] upload to upscaler
- [ ] choose 4x or 8x
- [ ] download final image
- [ ] inspect for AI glitches

** Watch For Upscaling Problems
AI upscalers can sometimes create:
- strange artifacts
- distorted edges
- unwanted details
- texture changes
- weird facial/object changes

Always inspect the final image before uploading.

** Printify Test
The tutorial compares three versions in Printify:

*** Version 1: Raw Midjourney Image
Problems:
- low resolution
- white background box
- not print-ready

*** Version 2: Background Removed Only
Improvement:
- transparent background works

Problem:
- still too small / low resolution

*** Version 3: Background Removed + Upscaled
Best result:
- transparent background
- higher resolution
- suitable for printing

** Final Workflow [0/7]
- [ ] generate image in Midjourney
- [ ] choose best version
- [ ] upscale selected version in Midjourney using =U1–U4=
- [ ] download image
- [ ] remove background
- [ ] AI-upscale image
- [ ] upload final PNG to Printify

** Key Insight
Do not treat Midjourney output as finished art.

Treat it as raw material.

The print-ready file usually comes after:
- cleanup
- background removal
- upscaling
- testing inside Printify

** Bottom Line
For print-on-demand, the correct workflow is:

Midjourney image → transparent PNG → AI upscale → Printify upload → check resolution.

Never assume the first downloaded image is ready to sell.


* Transcript
#+begin_example
00:00
Okay. In this video, we are gonna discuss,

00:04
how to,

00:05
turn your pictures in MidJourney

00:08
into

00:08
high resolution images

00:10
suitable suitable for printing. Because by default,

00:13
they're not suitable.

00:15
But using AI,

00:17
we can make them high resolution which is great. In

00:20
the future, Midjourney

00:22
might upscale images to be big enough to be printed

00:25
as is. Currently, it does not. So here's how we

00:28
do

00:29
it. The first thing we need to discuss

00:31
is the concept

00:33
of how to generate images in the first place to

00:36
maximize print quality size.

00:38
So currently, right now, if we were to save 1

00:41
of these images,

00:43
it would save in,

00:45
a 10 24 by 10 24 pixel

00:49
square image.

00:51
Now,

00:54
let's say I wanted to create a series of stickers

00:56
to sell that were off that were showing all of

00:58
the different planets in the solar system. You know, I

01:01
wanted to sell them on Etsy.

01:03
Well, there is 1 technique I could use to, in

01:07
theory, speed up this process. So I could come and

01:10
I could imagine.

01:19
Different

01:20
planets

01:21
in

01:22
the solar

01:24
system. Sorry.

01:26
Sheet.

01:27
Now I'm sorry about my accent there. I know that

01:30
that word sounds very different than my New Zealand

01:33
accent.

01:35
Yeah. If you're a New Zealander listening to it, you

01:37
probably don't really hear it. But if you live anywhere

01:40
else in the world, you probably hear that my e

01:42
sounded like an I just then. That's how it sounds

01:45
in New Zealand.

01:48
Of a different oh, that's system.

01:54
From the perspective

01:56
of,

01:59
how they look

02:00
in space,

02:02
minimal

02:03
design,

02:05
flat

02:06
cartoon,

02:09
2 d animation

02:11
style

02:12
on a white

02:14
background.

02:17
So

02:18
what my journey is going to attempt to create here

02:20
is a single page.

02:23
I probably should have said the word page so that

02:25
I didn't have to pronounce

02:26
the word sheet

02:29
in my New Zealand accent.

02:31
It's gonna try to create multiple different pictures of planets

02:34
on a page.

02:36
You can see here already that it's starting to do

02:37
that.

02:39
Now, people do use this

02:42
as a way to

02:43
create pictures which do look very similar because it's definitely

02:46
a lot easier than having to constantly, you know, picking

02:49
like, if I wanna create multiple planets that all look

02:52
the same,

02:54
I'm probably gonna have to prompt it multiple times

02:56
for each of the different ones to get them looking

02:59
fairly similar even though I'll still use the same prompt

03:01
to help minimize the amount of times I'll need to

03:03
achieve that.

03:05
But yeah, this is just a real quick way to

03:06
do it, isn't it?

03:08
They all look the same. They're all the same style.

03:11
The problem with this though,

03:14
people teach this as a shortcut and

03:17
I don't think those people are thinking about the printing

03:19
quality. Maybe those people don't actually print things. I'm not

03:22
really sure. But the problem with this is that if

03:25
we were to save 1 of these, it would be

03:27
in a 1024

03:28
pixel by 1024

03:29
pixel square box. And even when upscaled, these are already

03:33
gonna be starting at small because it's just a fraction

03:35
of that size. So I I can't I can't do

03:38
the math in my head of how exactly small this

03:40
would be right now but it's not many pixels at

03:43
all.

03:44
And so

03:45
that is why

03:48
if you have if you create if you are creating

03:50
a design that has multiple elements on it now if

03:53
you just say if you're just creating

03:54
a single picture, like let's say you're just creating, you

03:57
know, a picture of a corgi and that's all it

03:59
is and it's fantastic, obviously, you're just gonna save this

04:02
as is. But if you are creating something that's got

04:05
multiple different elements such as multiple different

04:08
planets,

04:10
then you want to generate them

04:12
individually if you can because that will mean then that

04:14
each 1 is going to print out in a higher

04:16
quality resolution so you can then upscale

04:19
that image

04:20
and then you can combine them together. So if I

04:23
was creating, for example, a t shirt which featured different

04:25
planets of the solar system as well, not, you know,

04:27
a series of stickers, but instead a t shirt that

04:29
featured different planets of the solar system, I would do

04:31
this exact same thing. I would create each planet individually

04:35
and I would upscale each planet individually, and then I

04:38
would place each of those different pictures

04:41
onto the t shirt design.

04:42
That way, they're all upscaled into the highest resolution possible.

04:46
Okay, Sarah. I can hear you say, I have created

04:49
my picture or pictures

04:51
and I've got them and I wanna save them. How

04:53
do I do that? How do I upscale them? Well,

04:56
very good question.

04:57
So let's come and let's say what we're gonna do

05:00
is I'm gonna pick 1 here that we might wanna

05:02
modify because I'm gonna show you a few things. I'm

05:05
gonna show you,

05:06
how to download it

05:08
and then I'm going to show you how to edit

05:10
it because,

05:12
a lot of the times these pictures will have,

05:15
errors or mistakes that you want to fix.

05:19
And so,

05:21
and it can be often small errors to fix and

05:23
we can edit them quite easily for free. So we

05:26
will discuss that.

05:28
If you don't have to edit it, you can skip

05:30
that step.

05:32
And,

05:33
we will then,

05:36
remove the background. And I'll show you 2 different ways

05:38
that you can remove the background

05:40
and then we will upscale it. So

05:43
for the sake of this,

05:45
let's say that I wanted to download this picture here,

05:47
which is definitely gonna need some editing because I don't

05:49
want all these little dots. Dots. These little dots are

05:51
not what I want. I don't want this either.

05:54
What I would do

05:56
is I'd go, okay, this is image this is image

05:58
1, this is image 2, this is image 3, this

06:00
is image 4. I want image 2. So you come

06:03
and you click U2.

06:05
And

06:06
now,

06:07
if we scroll down to the bottom,

06:10
you see that it has generated

06:12
a large upscaled version of it. So we can come

06:16
and we can click on it and then we can

06:18
come and open it in our browser and then we

06:21
can save the image.

06:22
So I'm gonna save this image

06:24
and then I'm gonna show you what to do next.

06:27
So,

06:28
chances are a lot of you watching have a Canva

06:31
Pro account. And if so, you can use that to

06:35
remove the background of pictures from the journey.

06:38
Now you do need a Pro account because you're gonna

06:40
have to save this as a PNG with a transparent

06:42
background. That is a feature which currently is only available

06:46
for Pro accounts, and it does include people who are

06:49
currently on the free trial for the pro account.

06:52
So as long as you have a pro account, you

06:54
can use Canva for this. Otherwise, I'll show you how

06:57
to do it.

06:58
But, if you have it, you might find Canva the

07:00
easiest. It's very, very good. Canva's very good at removing

07:03
backgrounds from images which are more complex. Obviously, this is

07:06
a pretty easy 1 to remove the background for but

07:08
you could have some images which have a lot,

07:11
more which have lines that are a lot more,

07:14
that require

07:15
a much, more complex AI technology to figure out. So,

07:20
yes. But this 1 here, pretty simple. So we're gonna

07:22
come and click little background remover.

07:27
Our background is now transparent just like that.

07:31
And now, we can save the picture.

07:34
So that's 1 way you can do it if you

07:36
don't have a Canva Pro description. I'll show you how

07:38
else you can do it for free.

07:41
Photo room. Yes. Photo room is how you can do

07:43
this, for free really easily. I've tried out a lot

07:47
of the free background remover AI apps. This is currently

07:51
the best 1 that I could find.

07:53
That had the best results. So

07:56
it's also really, really simple to use as an added

07:58
bonus.

08:00
You just come here, take your image,

08:02
drop it in,

08:05
let it load.

08:10
And now you have a bit and have transparent background.

08:13
Yay.

08:14
And then you can just download it

08:18
for free.

08:20
I'm not even signed in to an account, by the

08:22
way.

08:23
So you don't even have to have an account with

08:25
them.

08:26
Either way, once you've got your transparent your your your

08:29
I'm gonna draw a transparent background,

08:32
we now need to

08:34
scale it. So that's what we're gonna do next.

08:37
And so now with the power of AI, we can

08:39
upscale it using an AI image

08:43
in larger or upscaler. So previously,

08:47
increasing an image from being small to large

08:50
was

08:51
very challenging. You basically had to redraw the image from

08:55
scratch.

08:56
But now with AI technology,

08:58
it's completely changed. And so the reason why is because,

09:01
when you make an image

09:03
and you make it small, there's only so much, there's

09:06
only so many pixels there in the image. It's, you

09:10
know, limited by the amount of pixels there is. And

09:12
so if you just make the pic if you make

09:14
the picture bigger without redrawing it,

09:17
then you're just gonna stretch out your image and you're

09:19
not adding additional pixels. And so it's gonna look pixelated

09:22
because now you're stretching it across even more pixels.

09:25
So with an AI image outscaler, what it's doing is

09:28
when you increase the image by, say, 2 times or

09:31
4 times or 8 times,

09:33
the AI

09:35
is using its smart technology to figure out how it

09:37
should be redrawing that image to fill in those extra

09:40
pixels,

09:42
which is why we can now upscale images without reducing

09:46
the quality, which used to be impossible unless you completely

09:49
redid the picture from scratch. It's amazing technology,

09:54
something which

09:55
my younger self would have just found absolutely

09:59
incredible to have.

10:01
So

10:02
you can see here

10:03
the power of it. It's taking this image here

10:06
and it's upscaling it. Now, there are so many different

10:09
AI image upscalers out there. I really like AI Image

10:12
Enlarger. This 1 has been really,

10:14
has has created great results for me.

10:17
If you could when it upscales an image, you know,

10:19
just like with Medjutie, how Medjutie can create glitches with

10:22
things, how how things look, when when you're using AI

10:24
technology to upscale, in theory, it could also create glitches

10:27
too. So I found this 1 to be very good

10:29
for making the least amount of glitches possible.

10:32
But you do have to pay

10:35
for credits.

10:36
So you've got 8 free credits to use. So if

10:39
you wanna just get started, you can get started for

10:40
free.

10:42
With the premium account,

10:44
you can, get 100 credits per month. And then with

10:47
advanced, you can get 19 credits per month. You can

10:49
get for 19 dollars, you can get 500 credits per

10:52
month and obviously, there's a discount too for yearly subscriptions.

10:56
But if you just want to have a, flat fee,

11:00
then Gigapixel's

11:01
really great. Now this 1, obviously, it's not necessarily the

11:04
cheapest thing upfront.

11:06
But, you know, if you calculate it out, paying this

11:09
up here upfront for it,

11:11
versus having to pay a monthly fee, you're very gonna

11:14
quickly make back your money.

11:16
But there's also so many different AI image enlargers and

11:19
upscalers out there too. So you could take advantage of

11:22
the free ones and then you could go to free

11:24
ones like, you know, upscale medias and use those.

11:28
So,

11:31
I I have personally found better results with the paid

11:33
ones,

11:34
but you can get some pretty good results from here,

11:36
especially if your images are not complex images.

11:40
So it's up to you.

11:42
But you definitely need to upscale your image because currently,

11:45
if we were to upload the, our picture of Mars

11:48
as is onto a product within Printify,

11:51
it would not be high enough resolution for printing.

11:55
So I'll show you how to do it with this

11:57
1 here. But, again, you can use whichever 1 that

11:59
you like.

12:00
So we are gonna come and we're gonna take our

12:04
transparent 1. Take your transparent 1 and we're gonna drop

12:08
it in.

12:10
And,

12:12
now I've got paid accounts. I've got access to 8

12:14
times. The free accounts only have access to 2 times

12:17
and 4 times. So I'm gonna just select 4 times.

12:19
4 times is often enough for an image especially if

12:22
you're combining multiple images together and the images are gonna

12:25
be reduced downsize even more.

12:27
But 4 times is often

12:30
about more than enough.

12:32
And so,

12:34
we're then gonna come and click start.

12:38
And this can definitely take,

12:41
a little while, especially if you're doing 8 times.

12:45
So

12:46
we're just gonna

12:48
sit here for a bit

12:50
and let it process.

12:53
My dog stopped. He has been very quiet while I've

12:56
been filming recently. He must have gone back to sleep.

13:01
He must be having another nap. He went for a

13:03
huge walk this morning.

13:08
So

13:09
he's probably still quite tired

13:11
from his walk.

13:15
Still loading.

13:18
So sorry again, by the way, about my cough.

13:23
Again, you can fast forward this if you like, but,

13:26
for The Ecomm Clubhouse,

13:28
I really like to show things in their totality

13:32
because,

13:34
the patience of everyone here is so much better, understandably,

13:37
because you're paid to join program to get the information.

13:40
So, you are actually really looking for the information rather

13:43
than just looking to be entertained. So,

13:47
I can,

13:47
give you the full show it to you in in-depth,

13:51
so you can get a realistic idea

13:54
about what's actually involved

13:56
without me having to skip over things. So here we

13:58
go. We've got our image

14:01
looking fantastic.

14:02
We're gonna come and we're going to,

14:05
save this image. And

14:07
we're then going to upload this upscaled image,

14:11
onto our product.

14:14
Alright. So I'm here on Printify.

14:16
I've got up our Kiss Cut sticker and I've got

14:19
up their largest 1. And I'm gonna show

14:22
you how much of a difference it makes, the process

14:24
that we just went through. So let's start off first

14:27
of all with

14:28
that picture that we saved from Midjourney and then edited

14:31
in Photopea as is. So if we were to upload

14:34
this picture

14:36
as is,

14:39
you would see number 1, the resolution

14:41
is not good. So here we can make it bigger.

14:45
The resolution is not good.

14:47
And also because the background

14:50
is not transparent,

14:58
there is a big white box around it. Alright. That's

15:01
not what we want. So

15:04
come and delete this.

15:06
If we were to upload the transparent version

15:10
with the transparent background, there still hasn't been

15:14
you did you'd see this time around,

15:17
we've still got the problem that it's not being upscaled.

15:19
So it's still tiny.

15:22
But at least at least the background's transparent. So now

15:25
we've got the little kiss cut,

15:27
circle around it,

15:30
which is the goal.

15:34
So there we go.

15:38
However, if we come and if we take our

15:41
upscaled picture of Mars

15:47
and let it load in. It's gonna take a bit

15:49
long because it's a bigger image.

15:51
You can see

15:52
much higher resolution

15:54
because it's been upscaled.

15:56
So now

15:58
we can print

15:59
in high quality.

16:01
And remember, we did this at 4 times. For bigger

16:03
products, you may wanna do it to up to 8

16:06
times.

16:09
And then if we come and if we preview it,

16:13
you will

16:14
see, and it loads,

16:15
that,

16:16
it's got the transparent background

16:19
as well.

16:21
And so

16:22
that means in that,

16:23
we've been able

16:25
to

16:27
take a picture from the journey.

16:30
And then we've been able to upscale it and,

16:33
make it, ready to be printed

16:36
on better products.

16:38
Just let this go up like that. Beautiful.

16:42
So

16:43
that's how you do it.

16:45
I hope you've enjoyed,

16:47
these videos

16:48
and I will see you on the next 1.
#+end_example