Fine Art Printing

What is it?

Our fine art printing service allows artists to produce copies of their original artwork in the form of fine art (giclée) prints. The original artwork is professionally photographed under specific conditions, electronically adjusted as required and printed on a wide format giclée printer.

The word ‘giclée’ (pronounced zhee-clay) is French for ‘squirt’ and relates to the type of printing technology used.  A giclée printer squirts ink in microscopic droplets onto the paper in the same way that an inkjet printer does - but with greater accuracy and using special lightfast pigment inks.

Process

Capture

Our photographer will capture a digital image of the original using a high resolution DSLR camera, diffused daylight temperature lighting and spirit-level calibrated tripods. The result is a consistent, shadow free and undistorted image to use as a base for the next stage.

Colour Profiling

The black and white thresholds of the base image are then adjusted and the tested colour profile for type of printer and paper being used is applied to the image. Image size, paper size and border sizes are also set at this stage.

Proofing

A proof will be printed to check for colour accuracy. Fine colour adjustments and reprinting of the proof will repeatedly take place until we are happy with the colour likeness. Further adjustments may be requested by the originator at this stage.

It should be noted that an exact colour match is rarely possible due to the properties of the media itself - light reflecting off of a print will behave differently to light reflecting off of oil, acrylic, etc.

Printing

The image is then printed as many times as required using the same conditions and settings as the final proof. We use an Epson Large Format Printer utilising the Epson K3 Ultrachrome pigment inks guaranteed not to fade (under normal lighting conditions) for at least 75 years. We print on Epson Velvet Fine Art paper which is 100% cotton rag, acid free and 260g/m² in weight.

Limited Editions

Should you wish to make your print run a limited edition, we will control the edition to ensure its integrity is maintained.  We will produce the prints in the normal manner but the artist must sign and number each print in our presence before they are handed over.  We will maintain a master list of which edition numbers have been printed, when they were printed and when they were signed.  Once the whole edition has been printed, we will destroy all proofs and digital images to prevent further copies being printed.

Call off service

We operate a call-off service whereby an entire limited edition print run need not be printed in advance. We can print the edition as it is needed (in multiples of 5 A2 sheets). This way, the artist has not invested in a large print run in advance, but can call off extra prints as and when they are required.

Certificate

A certificate of authenticity is produced for every limited edition print produced. It contains details of the edition size along with information on the print media and printing dates.

Costs

Setup

A one off setup fee applies to each image, incorporating the image capture, colour profiling and proofing. Price for setup per image £50.00

Additional proofing

Should you require additional proofing, this is charged the same as the per-page printing cost as the process is the same.

Printing

Printing is based on the use of A2 sheets, so if the original image is sized at A3 for example, we can print two per page (effectively halving the cost per print). Each print run must be in multiples of 5 pages. Price per sheet £15.00 inc. VAT.

Any trimming of the final image is carried out free of charge. 

Examples:

10 x A2 images = £20.00 per print
20 x A2 images = £17.50 per print
10 x A3 images = £12.50 per print
20 x A3 images = £10.00 per print

The setup fee is charged only once, with the first print run. Additional print runs are charged at the per-sheet cost only.