You can create a complete, branded gallery price list today using a spreadsheet, a design template, and one of the pricing formulas galleries rely on every day. This guide provides ready template layouts, a step-by-step export workflow, and the square-inch, index, and sliding-scale formulas that turn a blank inventory sheet into a professional PDF ready for collectors, consignors, or a booth at an art fair.
TL;DR:
- Using a template and one of three pricing formulas (square-inch, index, sliding scale) helps create consistent and professional gallery price lists.
- Core fields such as title, artist, medium, dimensions, price, availability, and inventory number should always be included for accuracy and efficiency.
- Updating prices from an inventory system ensures consistency, especially after shows or price changes, avoiding mismatched or outdated PDFs.
- Exporting branded PDFs from inventory software or design tools is the fastest method, provided image resolutions are appropriate for intended use.
- Relying on a centralized inventory system and regular updates maintains accuracy, professionalism, and trustworthiness in gallery pricing communications.
Table of Contents
- What Should a Gallery Price List Look Like?
- What Fields Belong on Every Gallery Price List?
- How Do You Calculate Prices for a Gallery List?
- How Do You Generate and Export a Branded Price List PDF?
- How Often Should You Update Your Price List?
- A Working Checklist for Getting This Right
- Build Your Price List Once, Update It Everywhere
- Sources
What Should a Gallery Price List Look Like?
Most galleries settle on one of three layouts, and the right choice depends on where the list will be used rather than personal preference.
A grid layout shows thumbnail images in a matrix with price and title beneath each, and it works best for online viewing rooms or tablet presentations at fairs, where buyers scan quickly. A list layout strips images out entirely, favoring dense rows of title, medium, dimensions, and price. This is the format galleries hand to collectors who already know the work and just need numbers. A sales-catalog layout sits between the two: full-page or half-page images paired with complete details, built for print handouts at openings or for a consignment binder.
Each format surfaces different fields. A grid typically shows thumbnail, title, artist, and price, with dimensions tucked into a tooltip or footnote. A list shows every field but drops the image. A sales catalog includes all of it plus provenance notes and framed dimensions, since it doubles as a leave-behind document.
Real-world examples help more than any description. The Atlantic Gallery price list demonstrates a clean list format with inventory numbers and framed sizes. The Galerie Myrtis price list shows how a sales catalog handles framed dimensions and consistent U.S. dollar formatting for fair-ready presentation.
- Grid layout: best for viewing rooms and tablet browsing
- List layout: best for collector handoffs and quick reference
- Sales-catalog layout: best for print handouts and consignment packets
Statistic Callout: Gallery catalog examples consistently pair framed dimensions with a visible inventory number. Buyers and shippers use that pairing to match works fast, especially at fairs where dozens of pieces move in a single afternoon.
What Fields Belong on Every Gallery Price List?
A price list that skips fields creates problems later, when a shipper needs dimensions or a bookkeeper needs the catalog number for an invoice. Build every list around a core set of fields, then add optional ones based on the work itself.
Core fields, every time:
- Title and artist name
- Medium (oil on canvas, bronze, archival pigment print, and so on)
- Dimensions, unframed and framed if applicable
- Price, in a consistent currency format
- Availability status (available, on hold, sold, not for sale)
- Inventory or catalog number
Optional fields that add value:
- Provenance or exhibition history
- Condition notes
- Edition number and total edition size, for prints or multiples
- Shipping or crating notes for oversized or fragile pieces
These fields aren’t just for browsing. A master price list also functions as a sales and inventory tool, and every field you capture here should map directly onto your invoice and shipping paperwork, so you never retype the same information twice. A catalog number on the price list should match the number on the certificate of authenticity and the shipping label without translation.
Pro Tip: Assign catalog numbers before a piece ever gets listed, not after a sale is pending. Retrofitting inventory numbers onto an existing price list almost always creates mismatches between the PDF, the invoice, and the shipping crate.
How Do You Calculate Prices for a Gallery List?
Three formulas cover most pricing situations, and picking the right one depends on the body of work and how much size variation exists across pieces.
- Square-inch method. Multiply height by width to get square inches, then multiply by a price-per-square-inch rate. A 16×20 canvas at $6 per square inch prices at $1,920. This method is straightforward but tends to overprice very large works and underprice small ones.
- Index (linear-inch) method. Add height plus width, then multiply by an index number. The same 16×20 canvas at an index of 40 prices at $1,440. Because it uses linear rather than squared dimensions, the index method smooths out the price jumps that square-inch pricing creates between small and large works.
- Sliding scale with market adjustment. Start from either formula, then adjust the base rate by roughly 15 to 40 percent based on regional demand, exhibition history, or gallery visibility, after researching around 20 comparable artists at a similar career stage.
Sculpture, installation, and other three-dimensional work don’t fit cleanly into either linear formula. Guides on pricing non-2D work recommend documenting production costs (materials, fabrication, installation labor) separately and building a different index range for those pieces entirely.
| Method | Formula | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Square-inch | H × W × rate per sq. in. | Consistent-size 2D collections |
| Index | (H + W) × index number | Mixed-size 2D collections |
| Sliding scale | Base price × market adjustment (15–40%) | Career-stage or regional pricing shifts |
Worked example: a 24×36 painting at an index of 45 prices at (24+36) × 45 = $2,700 before gallery commission. At a standard 50 percent gallery split, the artist nets $1,350, and that commission line should appear on the invoice, not buried inside the sticker price on the public-facing list. Sliding-scale pricing also supports small, incremental increases, often around 5 percent annually, tied to milestones like a solo show or a museum acquisition.
How Do You Generate and Export a Branded Price List PDF?
The fastest path from spreadsheet to presentable document depends on how much volume you’re handling, but every workflow follows the same basic sequence.
For a small or occasional list, build the data in a spreadsheet, drop it into a design template in Canva or Google Slides, then export to PDF. This works fine for a single show or a small body of work.
For ongoing inventory, an inventory system with a report-builder function saves real time. Choose the fields you want visible, attach images directly from your artwork profile records, and apply a branded header and footer before exporting. This avoids re-entering the same data every time a price changes.
- Keep images at 300 dpi for anything you plan to print
- Use 150 to 200 dpi for PDFs distributed by email only
- Test one printed proof before mass distribution, since screen and print rendering rarely match exactly
Pro Tip: Add a short intro paragraph and a terms line (“prices subject to change without notice, shipping quoted separately”) at the top of the PDF. It reads as more professional than a bare spreadsheet dump and sets expectations before a collector reaches the numbers.
How Often Should You Update Your Price List?
Treat your inventory system as the single source of truth, and generate every PDF from that source rather than editing a static file by hand. Manual edits are exactly where version mismatches creep in, and a collector working from an outdated PDF is a real problem once a piece has actually sold.
Update prices after a show closes, at least once annually, and immediately after any milestone that justifies a price increase, such as a solo exhibition or a major acquisition. If you’re running a temporary discount, note it clearly as “sale price” rather than editing the base price field, so your records stay accurate once the promotion ends.
- Regenerate the PDF from your inventory system, never edit a static copy by hand
- Update availability status the same day a piece sells, not at the end of the week
- Keep discount pricing visually separate from base price so the sale doesn’t distort inventory records
- Confirm the price list matches the numbers your sales staff quotes verbally before every show
A Working Checklist for Getting This Right
Three habits separate a price list that builds trust from one that creates confusion later. First, treat your inventory system, not a scattered set of spreadsheets, as the only source of truth for pricing and availability. Second, always brand the PDF with a header, consistent formatting, and a short intro line. It signals professionalism even before a buyer reads a single price. Third, verify every figure against real comps before it goes out the door. Pricing in isolation, without checking what comparable artists at your career stage are charging, is how lists drift out of step with the market.
Template packs and example PDFs referenced throughout this guide are worth downloading and dissecting piece by piece. Studying how established galleries structure their own lists teaches more than any formula alone.
— Nealda
Build Your Price List Once, Update It Everywhere
Specialized art management software removes the retyping and mismatched-version problems that come from managing price lists in scattered spreadsheets. Such software can be built as a single system for organizing your collection, applying structured valuation formulas instead of guesswork, and generating branded PDF reports, certificates of authenticity, and price lists straight from your live inventory.
For galleries and artists managing more than a handful of works, such systems mean every price update happens once, in one place, and every exported document (price list, invoice, or certificate) pulls from the same accurate record instead of a stale file someone forgot to update. The valuation tools apply consistent formulas across your entire inventory rather than pricing each piece from scratch, and the artwork profile system keeps every field, from catalog number to provenance, tied to the record that feeds your exports.
If you’re ready to stop rebuilding price lists by hand, start with a free Artworksoft account and generate your first branded PDF export directly from your inventory.
Sources
- Pricing Your Art: A Comprehensive Guide for Artists
- How To Price Your Artwork
- Atlantic Gallery price list (example PDF)
- How To Price Your Art: The Ultimate Guide
