our printing PRocess
You can keep it draped and undercover in your studio,
or you can share it with the world.
Share it!
Here is where we can help you.
Fine Art Printing, at its essence, is taking your original art
and recreating it as closely and accurately to that original
as possible, allowing you to make perfect clones of your art.
Digital printing technology enables you to make only 1 print
of your art or as many as you wish.
You can print and offer sequentially numbered Limited Edition prints of your original,
which is a public promise that you guarantee that only a
specific number of prints will be made and no more.
This increases the potential value of each print
in your edition.
What is a Giclee?
You may have heard the word "Giclee" (ZHee-CLAY or Jee-CLAY) used to describe a fine art print. The term was invented around 1991 to give a descriptive title to what was then a new approach to high-quality print reproduction using digital technology. We rarely use the term these days and mostly refer to all we produce as Fine Art Prints.
How do we get started?
Your masterpiece is finally completed.
Congratulations! Now what?
In the case of the traditional artist working in oils,
acrylics, watercolor, etc., the process truly begins
with a “capture” of the original art. This can be
done using a scanner or photographic equipment.
This first step must be done correctly, as it is
fundamentally the most important step of the whole
process. A really great capture can make beautiful
prints, while a poor capture will never, with all the
digital magic available, make anything of passable
quality, at least not in the category of Fine Art.
This step is much easier for Digital Photographers,
as they have already created their “capture” when
they took their photograph.
The next big step…
Once a digital file is created from the capture,
we begin the proofing process. A camera
photographs the image, converting it to
digital information. It is then viewed on a
calibrated monitor, converted to CMYK
values, and output through a high-resolution
printer designed for the highest
level of digital printing quality available.
There's a lot going on here.
It is nearly impossible, with all the translations,
for the first test print to be 100% accurate
compared to the original art. There are
many tweaks that must be made to balance
all the values and color saturation as well
as adjusting the color range. This process
of making slight (sometimes major) fine-tuning
adjustments to the print in order to match the
original is called color correcting or proofing.
We output small prints or proofs of the image until we are very close to matching the original and at that time collaborate with the artist
on further improvements if needed. When satisfied, the artist will sign or initial the final proof and this will be kept onsite for comparison
when more prints are requested in the future. For artists that wish to print one image on different media, proofing is required for
each medium, as all media accept ink differently.
examples of color correction and the remarkable difference it can make
And then finally…
Prints are ordered. Just let us know how large and how many! It’s the easiest part of the whole process.
We love talking about the many steps in making great prints, so please call if you have questions.