With the continuous advance of technology it became easier for artists to promote their creations without a rebate on quality. A good example of this are „giclées” – fine art impressions - which inspire the viewer and preserve the emotions of the artwork. Nowadays printed artwork is part of our living environment and widely accepted by museums and art galleries.
It is important to note that not every printing studio can deliver the expected results. For example, the classic color commercial printing may deliver a result very different from the original, simply because the CMYK printing technique is not appropriate for “fine art printing”.
Thus, we highlight below the main aspects to consider when ordering fine art prints, to help you make a well-advised decision when it comes to the acquisition of “fine art impressions”.
Our Fine Art Imaging studio could help with your related projects – find out more about our services.
What type of art could be reproduced as printed artwork?
The Giclée printing technique is compatible with many types of artistic expressions. This feature offers many benefits in promoting and publishing art. A fine art print could replicate with astonishing results:
oil, pastel, gouache or acrylic paintings
water paintings
photography
crayon or charcoal sketches
digital art etc
When it comes to the printing process itself there are three major aspects that you need to validate in order to obtain the desired quality:
1. The fine art printing technique
The giclée printmaking technique can be an excellent choice. The term “giclee” comes from French and relates to the verb “to spray” and the noun “splashes”, describing how the ink is laid down on the media support (either paper or canvas). We are talking about inkjet printers which will deliver fine art prints with no pixel appearance, but rather a fluid impression with no gaps and a subtle transition between color tones
2. Type of ink used
Inkjet printers can use one of the two major ink categories:
Water-based (Dye) ink
Pigment ink
Fine art printing is predominantly done with pigment-based inks, which proved to be much more stable that water-based ones. The combination of these pigments and printing media (paper or canvas) greatly enhances the print’s lifetime, or “archivability”. This refers to the preservation of its chromatic qualities for years or even decades, which is of course kind of difficult to verify, given that this industry is relatively young.
We keep at our studio a giclée printed in April 2011 and the colors are still as vibrant as on the first day.
In time, light (UV factor) will degrade much less pigment-based fine art prints than any other printing option and you will have many years to enjoy your reproduction as if it were an original. However, for a better preservation, prints should not be exposed under direct sun – the same is true for original paintings.
3. Set of printing inks
The third important part of the giclée printing process is the array of inks that the printer will employ. The commercial digital print uses 4 (four) primary colours: Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black. By comparison, inkjet printers used for giclée printmaking utilise between 6 to 12 ink cartridges (thus allowing more variation of the color spectrum for a more accurate illustration of the digital image).
The giclée prints delivered by our studio, Fine Art Imaging, are made on Canon inkjet printers, each using a set of 12 LUCIA PRO PIGMENT INKS.
A fine art print as you expect:
These are just the main aspects to consider when ordering a fine art impression. The choice of printing material as well as the process of digitizing the artwork (digital capture of the original) are critical factors for a successful result
If you want to decorate your living space with genuine fine art printing find out more about the services offered by Fine Art Imaging studio.
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