Custom Children's Drawing Skateboard Deck: How to Scan It Properly

Last updated: July 2026 · By Stanislav Arnautov · Berlin · 9 min read

Of all the custom subjects, children's drawings are the ones that most reward getting the technical side right — and the ones where people most often skip it.

Scan it, don't photograph it

This is the whole guide in one instruction, and it matters more than anything else here.

A flatbed scanner — the kind in a home printer, or at a print shop or library — lights the paper evenly, keeps it flat, and captures it square. Scan at 600 dpi if the option is there; 300 dpi is the minimum. Save as PNG or TIFF rather than JPEG if you can, since JPEG compresses and children's drawings often have hard pencil edges that compression softens.

If you have no scanner, a phone scanning app is the second-best option — not the camera. These apps flatten the perspective and even out the lighting automatically. Put the drawing on a table near a window, no direct sun, and let the app do the correction.

Why a phone photo disappoints

Worth explaining, because a phone photo looks perfectly fine on the phone and then does not hold up.

Shadow. You lean over the drawing to photograph it, and your own shadow falls across part of the paper. On screen it reads as nothing. At 85 cm it reads as a grey band across your child's picture.

Colour cast. Indoor lighting turns white paper yellow or blue. The eye corrects for this automatically and the print does not.

Keystone distortion. Photographing from slightly above makes the top of the page narrower than the bottom. Straight edges stop being straight, and it is very noticeable once enlarged.

Paper texture. A raking light picks up every ripple and fold in the sheet. A scanner presses it flat.

None of these can be fixed afterwards. All of them are avoided by scanning.

Which drawings work

Bold and simple beats detailed. Thick marker, crayon and paint reproduce far better than faint pencil. A child's drawing enlarged to 85 cm is a genuinely striking object when the marks are confident — that is much of the appeal.

Strong colour helps. Pale pencil on white paper can look washed out at scale. If the drawing is faint but you love it, it may work better converted to black and white, where the line quality carries it.

Their name or signature is worth including. The wobbly signature in the corner is often the part you will care most about in fifteen years. Do not crop it out to make the drawing fit.

Keep the paper. Print the whole sheet including its edges, rather than cutting tight to the drawing. The paper is part of what makes it read as a real object rather than a graphic.

The shape problem, and the fix

A deck is 85 × 20 cm — about 4.25:1. Children draw on A4 and A3, which are close to 1.4:1. The mismatch is real.

Three ways round it, in order of how often they work.

Print the sheet with space around it. Rather than cropping the drawing to fit the deck, place the whole sheet in the middle of the deck with plain space above and below. The drawing stays complete, and the empty space reads as deliberate. This is usually the right answer.

Pick a vertical drawing. Children draw towers, rockets, trees, tall figures and family portraits standing in a row — all of which suit the shape naturally. Look through the pile for those.

Use a diptych or triptych. Two or three drawings side by side across a 171 cm or 256 cm run, one per board. This works particularly well for siblings, or for the same child at different ages. See the sizing guide.

Leave it alone

The temptation is to tidy the drawing up — straighten it, brighten the colours, remove the smudge, clean the background to pure white.

Resist most of it. The smudge, the crease, the place where the marker ran out, the bit that goes over the edge of the paper — those are the evidence that a specific child made this on a specific afternoon. Cleaned up, it starts to look like clip art, and the thing that made it worth printing quietly disappears.

Worth doing: straightening if the scan came out crooked, and a light overall brightness adjustment if the paper reads grey. Worth not doing: erasing marks, redrawing lines, saturating the colours, or replacing the background.

A set over the years

One approach that works better than a single piece: one drawing per year, each on its own deck, hung as a growing row.

Each is ~$140, so it builds gradually rather than all at once, and the change from year to year is the actual subject — the shift from scribble to figure to something recognisably designed. Keep the treatment consistent across all of them so the row reads as a set: same scanning method, same decision about colour or black and white, even spacing on the wall.

The mounting guide covers spacing for a row of decks.

What goes wrong

1. Photographing instead of scanning. Shadow, colour cast and distortion — none fixable afterwards.

2. Cropping out the signature. The part you will care most about later.

3. Over-cleaning. Removes exactly what made it worth keeping.

4. Choosing a faint pencil drawing. Bold marks reproduce; light ones wash out. Consider black and white instead.

5. Cropping the sheet to fit the deck. Put the whole sheet on the deck with space around it instead.

FAQ

How do I get my child's drawing onto a deck?

Scan it rather than photographing it, then upload the file through the custom deck service. A flatbed scanner — in a home printer, or at a print shop or library — lights the paper evenly, holds it flat and captures it square. Scan at 600 dpi where possible, with 300 dpi as the minimum, and save as PNG or TIFF rather than JPEG, since compression softens the hard pencil edges children's drawings often have. If you have no scanner, use a phone scanning app rather than the camera: these apps flatten the perspective and even out lighting automatically. Place the drawing on a table near a window, out of direct sun, and let the app correct it.

Why can't I just photograph the drawing with my phone?

Because four things go wrong that all look fine on a phone screen and none of which can be fixed afterwards. Your own shadow falls across the paper as you lean over it, which reads as nothing on screen and as a grey band across the picture at 85 cm. Indoor lighting puts a yellow or blue cast on white paper, which your eye corrects automatically and the print does not. Photographing from slightly above introduces keystone distortion, making the top of the page narrower than the bottom so that straight edges stop being straight — very noticeable once enlarged. And raking light picks up every ripple and fold in the sheet, where a scanner presses it flat. A scanner or a scanning app avoids all four.

The drawing is A4 and the deck is much narrower. What do I do?

Do not crop the drawing to fit. The best solution in most cases is to place the whole sheet in the middle of the deck with plain space above and below — the drawing stays complete, and the empty space reads as a deliberate choice rather than a compromise. Alternatively, look through the pile for a drawing that is vertical by nature: children draw towers, rockets, trees, tall figures and family portraits standing in a row, and all of those suit a 4.25:1 field naturally. A third option is a diptych at 171 × 20 cm or a triptych at 256 × 20 cm with one drawing per board, which works particularly well for siblings or for the same child at different ages.

Should I clean up or tidy the drawing before printing?

Very little. The smudge, the crease, the place where the marker ran out, the line that goes over the edge of the paper — these are the evidence that a specific child made this on a specific afternoon, and removing them makes the result start to look like clip art. What is worth doing is straightening the image if the scan came out crooked, and a light overall brightness adjustment if the paper is reading grey rather than white. What is worth avoiding is erasing marks, redrawing lines, saturating the colours or replacing the background. Also keep the signature: the wobbly name in the corner is often the part that matters most fifteen years later, so do not crop it out to make the drawing fit.

Article summary

A child's drawing prints beautifully at 85 cm, but the scan decides the outcome. Use a flatbed scanner at 600 dpi where possible, saving as PNG or TIFF rather than JPEG, or a phone scanning app rather than the camera. A phone photograph introduces four problems that cannot be corrected afterwards: your own shadow across the paper, a colour cast from indoor lighting, keystone distortion that bends straight edges, and raking light that picks up every crease. Bold marker and crayon reproduce far better than faint pencil, which may work better converted to black and white. Keep the signature and keep the paper edges. The shape mismatch between A4 and a 4.25:1 deck is best solved by placing the whole sheet on the deck with space above and below rather than cropping, or by choosing a drawing that is vertical by nature, or by spreading several drawings across a diptych or triptych. Resist tidying: the smudges and creases are the evidence a real child made it. One drawing per year on its own deck, hung as a growing row, works better than a single piece — each is ~$140.

About the author

Stanislav Arnautov is the founder of deckarts, a graphic designer and print specialist originally from Ukraine, now based in Berlin, where he personally designs and prepares every deck.

Related guides

• Design your own deck — upload and order
• How to design your own — files, crops and rights in full
• Children's room decks — names and room decoration
• Sizes and formats — single, diptych, triptych
• Mounting guide — spacing a row of decks
• Gift guide — buying for someone else