Is pixel art suitable for physically printed stuff?

[nikolas]

Hello,

I'm a music publisher (wow.. ok... nothing to do with pixel art), and as it so happens I've been working as a composer for computer games for many years (Resonance, for example, by Wadget eye and Vince XII).

Anyhow...

I'm planning on publishing a work for piano (a physical music score, with paper, dead trees and all that (actually the paper is recycled! ) and I'd like to add illustrations on a story I'm working on. BUT, since the music will comes from older computer game themes, I'd like the illustrations to be pixel art (which I like very much, btw).

BUT,

Will it look good?

Here are some examples from other scores I've published with illustrations.

http://www.musica-ferrum.com/shop_files/images/slyorig_b3071b8286af34079d88a9ed6d34f1e0.png
http://www.musica-ferrum.com/shop_files/images/slyorig_a07f8615b546d07e8ab4533dd172a375.png
http://www.musica-ferrum.com/shop_files/images/slyorig_b293f49cd00a5d64f630cdd8c0c0a1d4.png

All the illustrations are (and will be) in grayscale (greyscale?).

To repeat myself: I find that pixel art (originally at least) was an art form based on the limitations of computers, and fit for a computer screen. If printed in paper, will it look as good.

Nikolas

[Pix3M]

It should generally look as good printed as it appears on the screen, as long as you pay attention to color accuracy (printed colors might not look how it looks on the monitor without precautions). Pixel art that is printed as large as it appears on a monitor, should not have issues. Printing it larger than how it was intended to be looked at may cause issues. I could make pixel art that is meant to be a small avatar, but printing it poster-size may cause issues as it wasn't meant to be viewed at that size.

Artists who are good at making pixel art that isn't afraid of looking like pixels might be the sort you want.

[nikolas]

It's going to be B&W (ok grey scale anyways), so colours are not of utmost importance...

And yes, I am looking for what clearly looks like pixel art...

Thanks for your reply!

[Pix3M]

It's going to be B&W (ok grey scale anyways), so colours are not of utmost importance...

And yes, I am looking for what clearly looks like pixel art...

Thanks for your reply!

Oh, do be careful of gamma considerations though. It makes things a lot simpler if it's all grayscale but it is possible to have darks be too dark, or light areas being so light that it loses detail.