Printing and Scanning

We produce high quality digital giclee prints.

About Giclee

Giclee is a French word which loosely translated, means 'little squirt' It is a way of describing the technique by which an image is transferred to the material using our state of the art printing equipment.

Images are generated from high resolution digital scans and printed with archival quality inks. The giclee printing process provides better colour accuracy than any other means of reproduction.

Artists and photographers love the giclée printing process because it allows them to reproduce facsimiles of their work in a range of sizes and on a wide variety of materials.

Some of the most prestigious museums throughout the world, e.g., the Louvre and New York's Metropolitan and Guggenheim use giclée prints to substitute works of art that are too fragile to be exhibited to the public.

Image Sources

Images come to us from a variety of sources :

• Artists – paintings, watercolours, pastels, charcoal, pencil drawings etc.
• Photographers - photographs, transparencies or digital files.
• Other agencies – historical maps, deeds and documents

The process

In the case of tangible material, e.g., an original pastel, we start by photographing it with a superior quality large format high-resolution digital camera. This captures a high resolution image which is loaded onto a computer which has specialised image editing software. The image file is then adjusted so that the picture matches the original art.

For a top quality giclée print image files need to be about 300 dpi at the size at which they are to be reproduced. This makes them very large files which means, in turn, that the computers we use have to be very highly specified so that they are capable of handling them. Files may be anything up to 500Mb in size at this stage.

All of the image manipulation work we do is carried out on an Apple Mac computer running the necessary software.

Apple Macs are the computers of choice for colour professionals with expertise in this field.

Mostly, the image manipulation is performed using Adobe Photoshop software whose extensive range of functions, when executed by an experienced colour professional, is able to satisfy the exacting demands of even the most critical artist. Image characteristics such as colour and grey balance, contrast, lightness, sharpness, and saturation can all be adjusted at this stage. Unwanted parts of the image can be deleted and blemishes such as hairs or dust can be removed.

The size can be altered too and the necessary border widths set. Sometimes a caption is required such as the title of the piece or the name of the artist and this is also done at this stage.

But the image manipulation does not stop there. The whole process from capturing the original image right through to producing the giclée print is subject to a precise colour management regime. This allows the image to be viewed and printed accurately so that its appearance is consistent wherever the image is viewed and no matter what material is being printed.

When the file has been finalised on the Apple Mac, it is transferred via a network to a pc which allows further image manipulation to be carried out on the file to ensure that the image will appear correct and consistent on the material which is being printed.

The image can be cropped or resized at this stage if necessary and different images can be stacked together to make the best use of the available material size. Once the image characteristics have all been finalised, the file is then passed through a rip (a raster image processor) which lets the printer know exactly how much ink to place on the material and exactly where to place it.

Printing

Once the file has been ripped, it is ready to be printed.

The materials we can print on range from smooth and textured art papers to artist's canvas; also silk finish photo papers and poster paper. Even clear film and translucent backlit film for illuminated displays can be printed.

When images are printed on to materials such as canvas or textured paper to simulate the original artwork medium, the results are stunning and the giclée print is barely distinguishable from the original art.

Our standard watercolour paper is Somerset Velvet a 330gsm100% cotton mould made acid free paper. We print up to 44” wide and 20m long.

Our standard canvas, which can be varnished, is a 340gsm fine art canvas 44” wide by 12m long.

Our photographic paper is 260gsm satin.

Our pigmented inks have been tested for light fastness in conjunction with the papers we use and have met or exceeded the tests employed by the Fine Art Trade Guild and the present industry standard.

Our printer is an Epson Pro 9600 chosen for it's quality, the fact Epson developed the ink jet technology and that it prints with archival-pigmented inks which give our giclée prints museum-quality light-fastness with scores of years longevity. That means they will last for generations without fading when hung in domestic lighting conditions.

The advantages

Giclee prints are advantageous to artists who do not find it feasible to mass produce their work but want to produce their art as needed or on demand. Once an image is digitally archived, additional reproductions can be made with minimum effort and reasonable cost.

Archive files will not deteriorate in quality, as negatives or film do.

Digital images can be reproduced to almost any size and onto any media, giving the artist the ability to customise prints for a specific client.

Prints can be ordered as and when requiredWe can produce digital prints, from your own disk on demand.

The Market

Examples of giclee prints can be found in many museums and galleries.

Auctions of giclee prints have produced e.g., $10,800 for Annie Leivobitz and $22,800 for Wolfgang Tillmans

Prices

There are two stages to the cost of scanning and printing: the setup fee and the printing price.

The set up fee*

The set up fee for reproducing tangible work is £100 + vat per image

This includes scanning, colour balancing, and retouching until the final proof is approved.

The set up fee for scanning to disc where colour balancing and re-touching will be done elsewhere is £65 per image

There is no set up fee for outputting work from a digital file.

The printing price*

The printing price is £100 per square meter for all mediums.

We do not charge for standard borders around the printed images.

To calculate the printing price, multiply the width of the printed image by the length (see chart below).

*Discounts are available for larger quantities. All prices are ex vat.

Customers can send us images in the post, which Artifax will take every care to return back to the customer but Artifax accept no responsibility for damaged or lost images.

Artifax also accept digital images, which must be 300dpi quality and above in JPEG or TIFF format.

It is made clear that the quality of the finished print will vary depending on the quality of the image provided. Colours may also vary.

Please allow 10 days for delivery.

Please state where you wish your image to be cropped for print purposes or whether it is damaged and whether you wish it to be altered or restored.

Artifax clearly state that the rights of any image you submit to be printed must be your own or have the permission of the respective owner to use for such purposes.

There are a number of stretching, varnishing and framing options.

For more information please telephone us on 01635 552532 or alternatively e mail us with your enquiry using the box below:

We will telephone you before proceeding to discuss options and prices. In some circumstances payment will be required in advance before any work is undertaken.

Artifax © Copyright 2006/7, All Rights Reserved. Website created by Web Squared