The Digital Printing Process 

An OPUSalbums.com OctOPUS Blog -  For the range of OPUSalbums Innova and Olmec papers click here.

Giclée prints are produced in the finest tradition of printmaking when the pressures individually rather than lithographically where editions of less than two hundred prints are simply not cost effective  Giclée printing enable the artist to obtain  a much smaller run economically letting them experiment and profit from their creative work. 

 There are six basic steps, to consider.

1.   The artwork
2. Scanning
3. Image and colour
4. Printing
5. The limited edition
6. Archiving

  The Artwork

The Artwork can be almost anything: painting in acryrilic, watercolour, oil or pastel, silk painting, pencil drawings, pen-and-ink drawings, etchings, screenprints, photographs, digitally created graphics or even fabric, canvas and textiles. 

Start with original artwork where possible.

All artwork should be dry and/or fixed properly before scanning.

All artwork must be as flat as possible. 

Also check the copyright!

Scanning

In order to optimise the final print  capture the picture with as high a resolution as the scanner/computer will allow.

If your artwork is big to fit on your scanner, you do have other options available.

a) You can take your artwork to a print bureau or photographic

b) Get the artwork photographed professionally and supplied to you on tranparency,

c) Get the studio to provide a scanback.

Some basic rules of scanning

a) If you want a print to be the same size – scan at 300 dpi

b)To print to twice the size (e.g.A4 to A3) – scan at 600 dpi –doubling the scanning resolution in relation to the size of the original image.

c) This also applies to computer generated artwork, so make sure the original document size when you go to create new work is at least 300dpi.

d) No matter how good the computer or printer, if the image hasn't been scanned in at a big enough resolution the picture will always appear pixelated.

e) If scanning from 35mm or 5 x 4 inch transparencies, you will be substantially increasing the image size, so remember to set the scanning resolution accordingly.

Image and colour

Open your scanned artwork into an image manipulation program (e.g. Photoshop). You may then  alter the image in a number of ways such as cropping, rotating, resizing, adding text and changing both the contrast and colour balance. It is a good idea to always work on a copy of the scan, in case you make any errors.

If you have a good scan all need to do is crop any furry edges from the scan,. It is advisable at this stage to print the image as a guide to see what results you get - what you see on the monitor is rarely a true representation of what will print.

Always be aware that:

a) Printers and inks will have different colour ranges or gamut. Different printers will print the same image differently.

b) Monitors have different colour configurations and will represent the image differently and vary according to the ambient light.  You should therefore have a screen calibration system such as the Pantone Huey for your monitor.

c) Scanners will scan in RGB mode, and for inkjet printing it is best to keep working within this colour mode, as it has a broader range of colours.  Normally this means working in Adobe RGB or sRGB.You should not need to work in CMYK unless you are creating images for four colour offset litho.

Printing

a) When using Innova digital papers it is best to use a purposely created ICC profile.  The profiles for most papers we see on the popular printers may be downloaded from www.opusalbums.com/iccprofiles

b) If you want to use the printer settings, the best paper setting is generally Photoquality Inkjet or Watercolour Paper.   However, try different settings to get a result you are happy with.

c) If you are using a desktop printer, it is advisable to only feed one sheet of paper through the printer at a time. You may have to guide the heavier sheets into the feed position by hand. Printers that feed the paper from a tray at the bottom will generally take papers up to a weight of 210gsm – most of our papers are heavier than that.

d) Within your page set up menu you can set the printed resolution of the printed output from 600 – 2800 dpi, depending on your printer type.

e)  If longevity is important then use a pigment ink.  However dye based inks, which are liable to fade and are not waterproof generally produce a more brilliant image.

f) Always make sure you print on the coated side of the paper. Usually you can feel the coating on the paper surface. It is also a good idea to blow any coating residue from the surface of the paper before printing to avoid white marks later on.

g) Only handle the paper by the edges, try not to touch the surface too much.

h) If you are using a wide format printer, you will probably be printing more than one image at a time, and therefore be using some kind of RIP (Raster Image Processor) software.

The advantages of using a RIP are:

• more precise colour management provided by inbuilt colour profiles
• More economical use of paper as the RIP positions images optimally.
• Less strain on the editing computer (as the RIP generally runs on a dedicated machine).

Most wide format printers will take all our weights of paper and boards. Also check the core size of your roll holder as many of our roll sizes have a 3" core as standard.

The limited edition

The main advantage of printing digitally, is that you can print on demand, therefore, cutting costs by only printing what you sell in the edition. You don't have unsold prints to store, and you have the option to print your work at different sizes and on different paper types, with ease. You are not committed to the high quantities or costs of offset litho printing. This means the artist, gallery or publisher has much greater control over both the process and the cost.

Always sign, date and number your limited editions.

Archiving

Fine Art Trade Guild specifications require that for fine art printing all papers must be acid free and between pH 7-9.

All of our Innova Art papers and our Olmec 230gsm archival paper fall within this range.