A single deck is 85 × 20 cm — a ratio of roughly 4.25:1, far narrower than most images are composed for. Whatever you print — a photo, your own artwork, a logo — the single biggest factor in how it turns out is whether the composition survives that tall, narrow crop.
What custom printing means here
Instead of choosing a pre-made design, you supply your own image — a photo, an illustration, a logo, a pattern — and it's printed directly onto a real skateboard deck through the design-your-own-deck service. The image is yours; the maple, the printing and the shipping are ours.
How the printing works
The image is printed directly onto the deck's sealed maple surface using UV-cured inks — the ink is applied and hardened by UV light on the spot, so it bonds to the wood rather than sitting on a separate sheet of paper laid over the top. That gives a crisp, full-colour result with no visible print layer between the image and the deck.
Does your image fit the shape
Test it in ten seconds. Crop your image to a tall narrow strip about four times taller than it is wide and see what survives. A portrait photo, a vertical illustration, or a stacked logo all read naturally; a wide landscape, a horizontal logo lockup, or a group photo spread out sideways does not — it either gets cut off at the edges or shrinks until the detail that matters is unreadable.
If your image is naturally wide, that's not the end of it — see formats below.
The file you send
Send the original file, not a copy resized for a website, forwarded through a messaging app, or saved from social media. Each of those compresses the image and throws away resolution permanently, and the print is roughly 85 cm tall — about five times a phone screen — so anything soft or compressed becomes obvious at that size. If it's a logo, vector artwork (.ai, .eps, .svg) prints sharper than a raster file at any resolution.
Single, diptych and triptych
A single deck is 85 × 20 cm (~$140) and suits a tall, narrow, single-subject image. A diptych is two decks hung as a horizontal run with a 5 cm gap between them, 171 × 20 cm total (~$230), and a triptych is three decks the same way, 256 × 20 cm total (~$310) — both let a single image spread across the boards, which suits a wider photo or design far better than forcing it onto one narrow panel.
Why a deck rather than a framed print
Two honest reasons, and one that does not apply.
It's a real object, not paper behind glass. The image is part of a solid maple board rather than a print mounted in a frame.
It suits an active room. There's no glass to crack from a knock, and the sealed surface wipes clean of dust and fingerprints with a dry cloth — a framed print is the more fragile option in a busy space.
What it is not: a piece guaranteed to outlast a framed print. All printed colour fades under sustained ultraviolet exposure — posters, canvases, framed prints and decks alike — and we haven't had our inks independently tested to a lightfastness standard, so we don't quote a number of years. Out of direct all-day sun, a printed piece holds its colour well for a long time, regardless of what it's printed on.
Specific subjects, covered separately
The shape and file advice above applies to any custom order, but a few situations have their own specifics worth reading if they apply to you: pet portraits, family photos, weddings and anniversaries, and logos and brand marks each cover file quality and composition details specific to that subject.
FAQ
Can you print your own photo or design onto a skateboard deck?
Yes — upload it through the design-your-own-deck service and it's UV-printed directly onto sealed Grade-A Canadian maple, shipped ready to hang. What decides whether the result looks good is mostly the shape of your image relative to the deck's 85 × 20 cm proportions, and the resolution of the file you send.
What's the difference between a single deck, a diptych and a triptych?
A single deck is one 85 × 20 cm board (~$140). A diptych is two boards hung as a horizontal run with a small gap, 171 × 20 cm total (~$230), and a triptych is three boards the same way, 256 × 20 cm total (~$310) — both spread one image across multiple boards, which suits a wider photo or design far better than a single narrow panel.
Will my custom print fade over time?
All printed colour fades under sustained direct sunlight — that's true of any printed material, not something specific to a skateboard deck. We haven't had our inks independently tested to a lightfastness standard, so we don't quote a number of years. Kept out of direct all-day sun, a printed piece holds its colour well for a long time.
Article summary
Custom deck printing takes an image you supply — a photo, artwork, a logo — and UV-prints it directly onto a real Grade-A Canadian maple skateboard deck. What determines the result is mostly whether your image survives an 85 × 20 cm crop (roughly 4.25:1): a tall, single-subject composition works naturally, while a wide one either needs a diptych (171 × 20 cm, ~$230) or triptych (256 × 20 cm, ~$310) to spread across, or needs recomposing. Send the original file rather than a compressed copy. A deck suits an active room because there's no glass to crack and the surface wipes clean, but it isn't guaranteed to outlast a framed print — all printed colour fades under sustained sunlight, and placement matters more than the material. Singles from ~$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 your image and order
- How to design your own — files, crops and rights in full
- Sizes and formats — measuring before you order
- Skateboard Deck vs. Canvas Print
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