Digital Fine Art Printmaking

For centuries artists have used traditional printmaking methods of etching, serigraph, woodcut, lithography, and most recently, digital fine art printmaking to create both original prints and reproductions. Prints allow the artist to reach a wider market with a product that is both more accessible and more affordable. Traditional prints have often been created by collaboration between the artist and a master printmaker. The advent of new inkjet printing technology has not changed this.

The affordability and ease of use of inkjet printers has made this technology extremely popular. At the same time, the overabundance of low quality prints being produced by unskilled technicians has caused some people to be dubious of this type of printing. There are a lot of start-up companies making a bad name for digital fine art printmaking or giclee printmaking.  Niche studios like Old Town Editions only create digital fine art prints for artists, museums, galleries, and photographers. Studios like our own are set apart because we strive to offer the highest quality and service in this specialized field. This is done by meticulously calibrating equipment and using a color profiling workflow. This is a highly skilled process.

Like its forerunners, digital fine art printmaking is a true craft. The work that goes into preparing the image for digital printing is just as labor intensive as the traditional methods. Many numbers of proofs are printed and skilled technicians are involved in the adjusting of color and tone. Old Town Editions works very closely with artists to make sure that every detail is perfect. Our focus is not only on faithfully reproducing the artwork, but also on creating a print that will stand on its own as a quality piece of artistry.

Printmaking - studio table full of prints of watercolor painting of Capitol Building.

Our studio table covered with a large editions of prints of Second Lady Karen Pence’s artwork

Benefits of Digital Fine Art Printmaking:


Inexpensive:
With digital printing you can order giclee prints on demand, keeping initial project costs lower than other traditional reproduction processes. Instead of printing an entire edition at once like in the past with lithography, one can order limited edition giclee prints as they are needed.  This keeps inventory costs to a minimum.  You will no longer be stuck with the prints that were not the most popular editions.

High Quality With Fine Detail: When properly made, digital printing can offer exquisite image quality and sharpness.

Greener: The giclee printing method is more environmentally friendly than many other traditional printing methods.  Other methods utilize more raw materials like film and potentially hazardous chemicals during pre-press processing.

Turnaround Time: Digital printing also allows for faster turnaround times.  It takes less time and physical effort to set a file up for giclee printing. There are fewer steps in the giclee printing process, therefore making for quicker turnaround times for clients.

Ease of proofing: Digital printers can produce immediate and accurate proofs on exactly the same paper or canvas as the rest of your prints. Offset proofing can be expensive and slow. Offset proofs are usually on a paper slightly different than the final prints; this can be misleading.

Benefits of Digital Printing With Old Town Editions: An additional benefit of the digital printing process is the high resolution digital file of your artwork that you will receive with your giclees when working with Old Town Editions. This file can be used for websites, printing promotional materials such as postcards, for submissions to art shows and competitions, as well as giclee printing. These scans can even be used when cataloging assets with your insurance company.  Unlike photographs taken with a point and shoot camera, our digital captures and scans have even lighting, crisp focus, and color that is true to the original.

Components of Quality Printmaking:

It is a challenge to find true digital fine art printmakers. See our article “What is a digital fine art print?”. There are many levels of print quality in the digital print business. Shops that offer giclees, art reproductions, and/or fine art prints in conjunction with other types of commercial printing generally do not offer artists or photographers the full benefit of what a shop that specializes in digital fine art printing can offer.  To get a true archival digital fine art print or giclee, you need to consider several major components of the process.

If you are having art or an artifact reproduced: A good scan or image capture is essential. This is one of the most important steps. The quality of the scan will determine the quality of your final print or giclee. The scan should be high resolution. Most Digital Single Lens Reflex Cameras (DSLRs) are not sufficient for art reproduction.  See our article “Can I photograph my own work?”. If you are reproducing original artwork, it is always best to create a digital capture of the original art instead of a working from a slide, transparency or SLR camera file.

Printmaking - full sheet of prints of ceramic artwork by Marcia Jestaedt

Print reproductions of Marcia Jestaedt‘s original artwork

Digital captures create a large and more detailed file that is at or above the size of the original.  Transparencies are no longer the best way to reproduce artwork. See our digital capture service page to learn about this.

If you are printing a digital photograph or submitting a digital design: We recommend the digital file be at least 300 dpi at the size you wish to print or at the size of your original artwork.  If you are submitting a file to print with Old Town Editions it needs to be at least 200dpi at the inch size of your final print. 300 dpi at your requested print size is the optimal resolution for the highest quality print. Do not size up to reach the size you are wishing to print.  There are other ways to try to get a larger size out of your file if it is small.  Call our technicians today so we can guide you in this process.

Quality printmaking requires color control - table full of proofs for color reference

We keep physical proofs on file for all artwork we reproduce, to ensure we can match color on prints made years apart.

Inks: The inks and the paper should be certified archival. The most archival inks are pigment-based ink sets. These are available from several different manufacturers. Manufacturers with reputable archival pigmented ink sets are Canon, Epson and HP, to name a few.  For a truly archival fine art pigment print you will be looking for Aqueous inks sets.  These are water based pigment inks.  When looking at archival ratings it is important to consider the ink set in combination with the paper or canvas.

Paper:  The paper should be a fine art quality, heavyweight paper. It should be acid-free or 100% rag. We recommend any of the papers that are listed in our paper section. We recommend only using paper/ink combinations that have 3rd party archival ratings listed online.

Printer: The printer should be one that was designed with fine art applications in mind. For a truly archival fine art pigment print you will be looking for Aqueous printers.  These have a higher resolution and longer ink life than any dye, uv, or solvent printers on the market to date.  The future of printing is changing daily.  We do expect to see archival UV and Solvent prints in the future.  They have already gained quite a bit of traction over the last couple years, increasing in resolution and light fastness (resistance to fading).  We recommend either Canon or Epson brand printers.

Old Town Editions sources our paper and canvas from reputable manufacturers. It is important that the print materials are made by a company that has a proven track record of consistent quality. You need the same paper available for years to come when you go to reprint your images.  It is common practice for newer manufacturers to add and subtract papers from their lines. Choosing a newer paper from a new manufacturer could be a bad decision.  Choose your paper wisely.  Our main line of paper is made by Hahnemuhle, which has been making paper for over 400 years.

WARNING: Only digital fine art printmakers are geared towards making giclees that are identical from order to order over the years. Choose your printmaker wisely.  Commercial printmakers that offer this service in conjunction with other printing services often are not concerned with keeping your edition color consistent. Giclee printing is a small portion of the work they do and managing color for consistent giclees from order to order is costly and time consuming. So, the giclee that you had printed 2 years ago probably will not look the same today or even tomorrow. This can usually only be accomplished by choosing specialty printing studios like our own that are dedicated to giving our clients the exact same product every time they order reprints.