ImagePrint 8.0 Is Now Available for the Epson Stylus Pro 7900 and 9900 Printers

Epson Stylus Pro 9900

ColorByte Software has completed the development of ImagePrint 8.0 RIP software for the Epson Stylus Pro 7900 and 9900 printers. The software is the first to incorporate a brand-new color-management engine that can fully utilize the expanded gamut made possible by the Epson UtraChrome® HDR inkset that uses 10 inks, including orange and green.

According to ColorByte, ImagePrint 8.0 users can anticipate seeing as much as 40% more color volume on the 7900/9900 compared to the Epson 880-series printers.

“You won’t see the benefit of our new color engine if you are printing 8-bit images or in a smaller-gamut color space such as sRGB,” explains ColorByte president John Pannozzo. “But for those who are willing to step forward and use new technologies such as 10-bit displays, ImagePrint 8.0, and Epson printers that use UltraChrome HDR inks, you will be able to print a wide range of colors never before possible.”

ColorByte has also announced that ImagePrint 8.0 is now available for the 17-in. Epson Stylus Pro 3880.

Use ImagePrint 8.0 to lay out notecards, album pages, posters, or displays

New Features in ImagePrint 8.0: If you aren’t yet familiar with this newest version of ImagePrint, check out the demos on the ColorByte website. Many of the new features can help you print a wider variety of sellable products, including photo books, art cards, posters, and canvas wraps. Here’s a brief recap:

Text: You can now add text anywhere on the page, using any font on your system. You can create text of any size or color-with or without a drop shadow.

Backgrounds and frames: When designing album pages or posters, you can add a solid or another image as a background. Then, you can frame and matte any image on the page.

Templates with backgrounds and artistic frames: Put a photograph behind your templates, or use a solid color. Every frame within the template can have its own colored background too.

Better crop marks and annotations: You can now see the crop marks and captions on the page—not just on the print.

 

The Boundaries feature lets you lay out multiple pages on a wide roll of media.

Boundaries: This tool makes it easy to divide your page into croppable sub-pages, making it efficient to print a higher volume of book pages on wide rolls of media. Once you’ve gathered all of the elements of a page layout (text, backgrounds, multiple images) and marked them with group crop-marks, you can easily move everything on that sub-page all at once. Everything within the area bounded by the group crop marks will keep their position on the sub-page.

Extended and mirrored edges for gallery wraps: If you are making canvas prints that will be stretch-mounted, ImagePrint can automatically extend and mirror the edges of the image to cover the sides of the stretcher bars.

A new spoolface: ImagePrint makes it easy to monitor, edit, archive, reprint and cancel print jobs. It also enables you to control print jobs running on multiple computers and printers. With the spoolface, you can see which jobs are in the print queue and which jobs have been saved for future use. Job previews let you see a thumbnail of each file in the queue or archives.   

Use ImagePrint to easily create edges for gallery wraps.

LexJet is an enthusiastic reseller of ImagePrint software because it has helped so many professional photographers efficiently print high-quality images on a wide variety of materials.

ColorByte Software offers more than 27,000 profiles for 400 different papers, including LexJet’s own award-winning Sunset photo and art papers for fine-art and professional photographic printing. The color profiles are built for five different lighting temperatures, so that you can ensure that your fine-art photography will look its very best whether it’s displayed in a private residence or a gallery.

ImagePrint is also famous for its ability to preview and duplicate traditional darkroom techniques such as Selenium and Sepia toning on warm, cool, and neutral papers. Advanced image adjustment tools include split-toning (with preview) and Reverse Sepia and Selenium.

A demo version can be downloaded from ColorByte website. ColorByte also offers a 30-day money-back guarantee if you want to test the product more extensively without having “Demo” stamped across each printed image.

If you would like more information about ImagePrint software and/or the Epson 7900/9900 printers, please call a LexJet account specialist at 800-453-9538. Ask about special financing programs and other offers that make it easier to buy the Epson 7900 or 9900 with UltraChrome HDR inks.

 

Setting the Stage for a Major Exhibition at the National Geographic Museum

If you are planning to visit Washington, DC anytime between now and the end of March, consider visiting the National Geographic Museum to check out an amazing exhibit entitled “Terra Cotta Warriors: Guardians of China’s First Emperor.” The reason we’re talking about it here is because the National Geographic Imaging Department used an Espon Stylus Pro GS6000 and LexJet Sunset Satin Canvas SUV to print many of the graphics and visuals that tell the story of the Terra Cotta Warriors and artifacts on display. Below are excerpts of an article that appeared in Vol. 4, No. 12 of LexJet’s Expand newsletter.  

 One of China’s most popular tourist destinations is near the city of Xi’an, where archaeologists are continuing to excavate a massive, subterranean vault containing fragments of thousands of life-size terra cotta figures produced more than 2,000 years ago. The figures were created to guard the tomb of China’s first emperor, Qin Shihuangdi, who ruled from 221 B.C. to 210 B.C. 

More than 1,000 figures have been unearthed, and an estimated 6,000 more remain in the known underground pits. National Geographic magazine first published an article about these terra cotta warriors in 1978, after the first fragments were found four years earlier by farmers digging a well. The site is now regarded as one of the greatest archaeological discoveries of the 20^th century. 

When it was announced that some figures and artifacts from Qin Shihuangdi’s tomb would be available for display in the United States, the National Geographic Museum was one of four museums chosen to present an exhibition.  Entitled “Terra Cotta Warriors: Guardians of China’s First Emperor,” the exhibit opened at the National Geographic Museum on Nov. 19 and runs through March 31, 2010.  The 12,000-sq. ft. exhibition is organized in four rooms on the first floor of the headquarters of the National Geographic Society in Washington, DC.

The “Terra Cotta Warriors: Guardians of China’s First Emperor” exhibit at the National Geographic Museum in Washington, DC runs through March 31, 2010. The exhibition showcases 15 life-size terra cotta figures, including two infantrymen, a chariot driver, two officers, an armored warrior, two archers, a cavalryman, two musicians, a strongman, a court official, a stable attendant, and a horse. Also on display are 100 sets of artifacts and an hour-long film that features an inside look at the massive tomb where the artifacts were found. For more information, visit http://www.warriorsdc.org. (Photo: Kate Baylor, National Geographic)

The exhibit’s graphics and visuals were designed by Alan Parente, Art Director for the National Geographic Museum.  Dozens of text panels, illustrations, and other supporting graphics were produced by Rob Naylor of the National Geographic Imaging Dept. which is managed by Bernard Quarrick. 

About 95% of the graphics for this project were produced on the Epson Stylus Pro GS6000 low-solvent-ink printer that National Geographic’s Imaging Dept. had purchased from LexJet. The graphics include more than 75 large graphics panels printed on Sunset Select Satin Canvas SUV and 50 to 60 directional and informational signs printed on vinyl and posted inside and outside the museum.     

“We were extremely excited to get this exhibition,” says Parente. “We were all honored to be able to work on it.”

Because of the tremendous costs involved in transporting and insuring the artifacts, and providing additional security, this is the first time the National Geographic Museum has sold tickets for an exhibition.  When the exhibit opened in November, more than 100,000 advance tickets had already been sold.

Even though the artifacts had previously been shown at the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana, CA, the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, and the Houston Museum of Natural Science, Parente wanted to create a fresh design for the National Geographic Museum. He wanted to present the Terra Cotta Warriors in a way that would include the type of explanatory information that fans of National Geographic Society expect.

Parente chose earth tones for the color scheme to put the focus on the warriors themselves. He selected canvas as a no-sheen, natural-looking material for the entryway, explanatory text and supporting illustrations.  Most of the text panels are applied directly to the walls. The illustrations were printed on canvas, stretched as gallery wraps, and hung on the wall.

The walls of the opening room are completely covered in about 820 sq. ft. of LexJet Sunset Select Satin SUV Canvas printed on an Epson Stylus Pro GS6000 printer. The canvas was installed directly to the walls by a professional wallpaper-hanger. (Photo: Mark Thiessen, National Geographic)

Each of the other three rooms of the exhibit had 12 to 16 text panels. Each panel was about 8 to 10 ft. high, and varied in width from about 16 to 52 in., depending on the size of the presentation case. (Photos: Mark Theissen, National Geographic)

The exhibit graphics were produced during an intense six-week period from early October through mid-November. During this time, the GS6000 ran nearly non-stop including nights and weekends.

“The printer got a real workout on this job,” says Naylor. “But it came through like a champ.” Naylor also used the GS6000 with calendered vinyl to print floor graphics, outdoor signs, and directional signs. He used LexJet Sunset Fine Art Satin SUV by Hahnemuhle to produce promotional prints that could be displayed in the windows of local retailers. 

Supporting illustrations for the exhibit were printed on canvas, stretched, and displayed as gallery wraps. The largest illustration was a 16 x 3 ft. seamless panoramic image designed to give viewers a sense of the immensity of the archaeological dig site in China. (Photo: Mark Thiessen, National Geographic)

Producing graphics for the Terra Cotta Warriors exhibit enabled the National Geographic Imaging Department to demonstrate their full range of capabilities. Until now, most exhibits in the National Geographic Museum have featured the organization’s world-class images that show the richness and diversity of our world. Most of these images are printed on National Geographic’s Durst Lambda which uses RGB lasers to exposure images onto photo papers which are then fed through a silver-halide photo processor.

National Geographic Imaging is also equipped with a GBC Orca wide-format laminator and three Epson Stylus Pro 9800 printers which are used primarily to print maps and as proofing devices for National Geographic magazines and publications.

According to Quarrick, the graphics team at National Geographic Imaging can handle a wide range of exhibit-graphics work for other museums in the Washington, DC area. “We don’t like to turn down anything. What someone might consider a problem, we in National Geographic Imaging treat as a challenge,” says Quarrick.

Designer Alan Parente agrees that the Imaging Department has some very knowledgeable employees: “These guys are great partners to have. They are very creative in their own right. When I come to them with my ideas, I know I can rely on them to help me figure out how to make these things a reality.”

Naturally, everyone at LexJet is thrilled to see LexJet materials used in such a magnificent exhibit. Account specialist Jaimie Perez says, “I have been working with Rob for years, and was honored to help Rob find the perfect materials to fit their vision of the Terra Cotta Warriors exhibit.”

For more information about “Terra Cotta Warriors: Guardians of China’s First Emperor” exhibition, visit www.warriorsdc.org

For more information about using the Epson Stylus Pro GS6000 and LexJet materials to produce exhibit graphics and visuals, contact Jaimie Perez or any of the other helpful experts at LexJet ay 800-453-9538.

Brilliant Studio Continues the Tradition of Collaborative Printmaking

By Dustin Flowers

Brilliant Studio is located in a warm and welcoming facility in the countryside about 30 miles from Philadelphia.

The newest issue of LexJet’s In Focus newsletter shines the Artist Spotlight on one of my customers, photographer and master printer Bob Tursack of Brilliant Studio and Brilliant Graphics in Exton, PA (near Philadelphia). 

Brilliant Studio provides top-quality printmaking in the broadest sense of the word. While Bob can reproduce art with the utmost fidelity, he believes he does his best work for artists and photographers who trust him as a collaborator. He regards printmaking as an art in itself—an extension of what can be achieved with cameras, paintbrushes, or drawing tools alone. Thus, he feels comfortable recommending ways clients can achieve the highest artistic realization of the image they had visualized from the start.

Brilliant Studio works with many galleries, publishers, artists, and photographers and has printed reproductions for painters such as the late Andrew Wyeth and photographs by Michael Furman, George Tice, and Yaakov Asher Sinclair.

At first, Brilliant Studio outsourced the printing of artists’ books and gallery catalogs. But because Bob grew up in a family that ran a commercial printing business, he decided to establish Brilliant Graphics as a companion business. He bought a Heidelberg press, developed a computer-integrated printing workflow, and now prints brochures, annual reports, corporate marketing materials, catalogs, posters, and perfect-bound and casebound books.

Brilliant Graphics provides these printing services not only to galleries, artists and photographers, but to other businesses as well. They are particularly skilled in printing publications that require superb image reproduction. For example, Brilliant Graphics produced catalogs for Swann Galleries, the New York auction house that sells works from the earliest days of photography to images by modern masters.

Outstanding Facilities: Earlier this month, I was honored to be invited to the Open House Brilliant Studio hosted for current and prospective clients. Their studio was unbelievably clean and well-equipped. Not only were their customer reception and proofing areas immaculate, but so were their camera rooms, printrooms, and computer rooms.

Brilliant Studio is equipped to produce giclee prints, exhibition prints, intaglio copperplate etchinigs, relief prints, and offset lithographs. They also provide scanning and mounting services.

The post-and-beam construction of their building may look rustic, quaint and homey, but everything inside the building was specifically designed for optimizing workflow, enhancing communications with customers, and controlling print quality.  

For capturing original artwork, Brilliant Studio uses Phase One and Hasselblad cameras and Creo Eversmart Pro Scanners.

They can make prints on a wide range of equipment, including four 44-in. Epson Stylus Pro 9800 printers with the ImagePrint RIP, a 64-in. Epson Stylus Pro 11880 printer, and a Ryobi four-color waterless offset lithography press. In the midst of all new technology stands an antique etching press, which can be used either for copperplate etchings or relief prints from woodcuts or linoleum cuts.

Empathy and Advice: As a photographer himself, Tursack understands that when photographers give him an original file to print they are giving him a piece of their soul. He says, “I know what goes into creating an image and the sense of great disappointment that can be felt when something you created isn’t reproduced well.”

He encourages artists to freely tell him when they don’t like something. But he also feels comfortable enough to suggest ways they can improve the market acceptance of their work without compromising their artistic integrity.

Marketing Support: Bob Tursack and his staff are happy to help good artists get their work noticed. When appropriate, they introduce artists to some of their gallery or publisher clients.

And the marketing consultants and designers at Brilliant Graphics can help artists create branding and identity packages, and advertise their work in regional lifestyle magazines and art trade journals.

Brilliant Studio also produces a bimonthly mailing of full-color art cards to 3,000 qualified contacts in the print-sales marketplace. Each card features the work of a single artist with details about the artist and available print sizes.

To promote efficiency and communications, all of the estimating, customer service, prep and planning are done in one location. (Photo: Brilliant Graphics)

In-Depth Media Evaluation: One role Tursack takes very seriously is helping the artist choose the right paper or canvas for each print. He recommends a paper for a particular job based on its color gamut, maximum density, tactile quality, archival nature, and what the paper will add to the personality of the print.

Depending on the requirements of a particular job, he may recommend a Hahnemuhle German Etching, Photo Rag Bright White, Photo Rag Satin, Fine Art Pearl, Photo Rag, or Fine Art Baryta. For prints output on canvas, I am pleased to report that he uses LexJet Sunset Select Matte Canvas or Instant-Dry Satin Canvas.

Bob Tursack evaluates different materials so that the artist’s trust in his expertise will be rewarded. He believes that “Understanding where an artist is trying to go with their work is by far the most important part of what we do.”

 It’s hard to describe how impressed I was when I visited Brilliant Studio earlier this month. I encourage you to read more in the story In Focus, or visit the websites of Brilliant Graphics and Brilliant Studio and see for yourself what makes this business unique.

The Brilliant-Graphics website includes a virtual tour of their facilities. Shown here is one of two customer viewing areas and conference rooms.

Printing Photos and Art for Outdoor Display

This photo-banner project started with a NASA public domain file that normally would have been suitable for printing at around 16 x16 inches. Using onOne’s Genuine Fractals software, Joe Menth of Fine Balance Imaging Studios enlarged the image to 9 x 9 ft. and output it in three 3-ft. wide sections on LexJet’s TOUGHcoat Water-Resistant polypropylene film. http://www.fbistudios.com

To most people, the term outdoor photography means photographs taken outdoors. But with pro-model pigment-ink wide-format inkjet printers and banner materials from LexJet, the term outdoor photography can also mean photographs displayed outdoors.

For example, check out this triptych photo banner that Joe Menth of Fine Balance Imaging Studios in Langely, WA, created using LexJet’s TOUGHcoat Water-Resistant polypropylene film on an Epson Stylus Pro 9800 with UltraChrome pigment inks and ImagePrint RIP software.

Polypropylene film is a bright white, tear-resistant alternative to photo paper that produces outstanding image quality. Yet it’s durable enough to hang outside for several weeks or months without lamination.  

Menth originally created this banner to celebrate Earth Day. But it looked so nice, and called attention to their studio’s second-floor location that they kept it hanging for a couple of months afterwards. Plus, the entire building is constructed from reclaimed and recycled materials, so the Earth banner went nicely with the sustainability theme of the building.  

 “One reason the banner is in three pieces is that we wanted a way to hang it out our windows, and be able to remove it or change it out easily,” explains Menth. “And because we don’t have any way to weld the panels together, we decided to just put it up as a triptych.” The banner could be seen from many blocks away.

For photographs and art that will be displayed outdoors for longer periods of time, you would probably need to find a service bureau equipped with a printer that uses low-solvent, solvent, or UV-curable inks instead of the aqueous  inks used in popular, wide-gramut photographic printers.  

LexJet works with thousands of services bureaus nationwide that use solvent and UV-curable printers and can recommend a printing firm in your area that can help you.

To learn more about different materials and options available for producing and displaying photographs outdoors, call a LexJet account specialist at 800-453-9538.

You can read more about Fine Balance Imaging Studios in the July issue (Vol. 4, No. 7) of LexJet’s In Focus Newsletter or in the Studio LexJet posts:  Deskfront Displays for Photo,Art, and Promotional Prints. Or visit their website: www.fbistudios.com

New Videos Explain Why Photographers Like Epson Stylus Pro 900 Series Printers

By Eileen Fritsch
Editor, LexJet In Focus Newsletter

When I visit the Epson, Canon, and HP booths at photography-industry trade shows, I not only like to see what new products are being previewed or promoted but also how they are being promoted. That’s because press releases, tech data sheets, and brochures are often so dense with numbers, charts, statistics, and buzzwords that the practical, real-world value of the new products aren’t fully conveyed.

Certainly, facts, figures, engineering data, and gamut maps can help substantiate claims that a product is improved. But it can be extremely valuable to see new products being demonstrated or discussed from the perspective of the end user.

One of Epson’s goals at PDN PhotoPlus Expo this year was to visually document some of the benefits of their Epson Stylus Pro 900 series printers and UltraChrome HDR ink technology. They did this in two very creative ways:  1) through a new series of online videos, and 2) with an in-booth print-comparison display that also highlighted their newest art papers.

New Videos: On the day the PPE show opened, Epson announced the addition of seven new videos to their Focal Points website. In these videos, well-known photographers Bambi Cantrell, John Paul Caponigro, Douglas Dubler, Greg Gorman, Jay Maisel, Steve McCurry, and Jeff Schewe talk about the value of printing in general and the importance of printing big.

Their comments underscore a theme that resonated at PPE this year: Prints are the ultimate expression of a photographer’s vision and can provide a lasting legacy of a photographer’s career. 

Another benefit some of the photographers talk about in the videos on Epson’s website is how well the UltraChrome HDR inks can print details and flesh tones even on matte papers.

One Portrait-Five Different Media Types: To illustrate the capabilities of UltraChrome HDR inks, Epson’s booth at PhotoPlus Expo displayed five identical portraits side by side. Each portrait had been printed on a different type of media. Four were printed on Epson’s new art papers (Cold Press Bright, Cold Press Natural, Hot Press Bright, and Hot Press Natural) and one was printed on Epson Exhibition Fiber paper for photography.  

The portrait depicted an elderly gentleman, with a deeply wrinkled face, twinkly blue eyes and a healthy thatch of snowy white hair. He was wearing a comfy-looking black fleece pullover that draped in soft folds around his neck and shoulders. This particular image proved to be a visually powerful way to demonstrate how well the wide gamut of the UltraChrome HDR inks and Epson print technology could reproduce black, shadow detail, highlight detail, and fleshtones on five noticeably different media types. 

If you haven’t visited Epson’s Focal Points website lately, check it out and take a few minutes to watch the videos. When the practical benefits of advances in technology are explained from the point of view of top artists, it’s much easier to understand the real-world value of the technical breakthroughs that get the product managers and engineers so pumped up.       

If you’re interested in buying a 24-in. Epson Stylus Pro 7900 or 44-in. Epson Stylus Pro 9900 series printer, call one of the friendly account specialists at LexJet (800-453-9538). They can answer any questions you may have and tell you more about the many different ways LexJet customers are using these printers.

 In future posts about what I learned at PhotoPlus Expo, I’ll talk about an eye-opening HP-hosted event (New Ideas, New Beginnings) and a fascinating software demonstration I saw in Canon’s booth.

Graham Editions: Appreciating the Art in Art Reproduction

Not all companies that offer fine-art reproduction services are equally well equipped—particularly when it comes to the most important phase of the process: the digital capture. Significant variations exist in the type of capture equipment and lighting set-ups used.

If the original artwork isn’t captured at sufficiently high resolutions and under the correct lighting, the intricate brushstroke detail that adds texture and nuance to a work won’t reproduce as well as you might like—especially if the painting is enlarged from its original size. And some areas of the reproduced painting may show more detail than others. Color quality can become a concern if the printmaker lacks sufficient experience in the finer points of digital color reproduction.

One printmaker who values the importance of high-res capture and color management is Geoff Graham of Graham Editions in Canoga Park, CA.

 

Geoff Graham regards his printmaking atelier as a fine-art boutique, offering whatever high-end scanning, capture, and fine-art printing services a client might require. Graham Editions routinely produces large editions of high-end works for art publishers, but also enjoys working with individual artists and photographers who just need a few prints.

Having worked as a commercial photographer for more than 25 years, Graham has acquired an in-depth knowledge of color along with the high-end imaging equipment needed for top-quality fine-art reproduction. He is totally committed to achieving the best possible quality during every step of the art-reproduction process.

For capture, he typically uses a Sinar P2 4×5 view camera with a PhaseOne FX scanning back. Combined with his powerful North Light 900 HID lighting set-up with UV filters, he can create ultra-high-resolution files with all of the detail required to make beautiful, consistently detailed reproductions.

“I’ve been using large- and medium-format cameras since I can remember,” says Graham. “The scan back cost $37,000 when I first purchased it, and the quality it reproduces is mind-blowing. It has an area of 10,500 x 12,600 pixels and the detail is phenomenal. I use high-end reprographic lenses so I can get as close to the image as I need to. I also have lots of flexibility in my lighting.” This flexibility enables him to adjust the lighting according to the nature and texture of each piece of art.   

He typically reproduces originals painted with oil and acrylic on canvas in sizes from 16 x 20 in. up to 48 x 72 in. but he has captured paintings larger than that.  He says, “If it’s any bigger than 48 x 72, I can shoot it in sections and blend in Photoshop.”

The files are output on one of three Epson printers. Graham generally uses the 44-in. Epson Stylus Pro 9600 for black-and-white printmaking, the 44-in. Epson 9800 with fine-art papers, and the 64-in. Epson Stylus Pro 11880 with LexJet Sunset Select Matte Canvas. Having each printer dedicated to certain types of jobs makes it more efficient to keep the workflow totally color managed. 

Geoff Graham has considerable expertise in color management, which he regards as the key process in fine-art reproduction. He did some consulting in the early years of the digital color management, and knows how to use and interpret profiles. He uses ProfileMaker software and i1 color-measuring devices now sold by X-Rite to create custom profiles for all of his capture, display, and output devices.

He keeps the studio exceptionally clean, which is particularly important during the printing and finishing phases. Graham meticulously coats all canvases by hand. He typically applies two coats of varnish and creates profiles for his print media based on how the prints will look after the varnish is applied.

Graham doesn’t expect clients to understand all of the technical reasons why this fine-art reproduction workflow produces great-looking results. Instead, he simply shows them the high level of printmaking skills he has attained since going into the fine-art reproduction full-time business several years ago.

All of the cameras, scanners, printers, and monitors at Graham Edition are color managed. “Everything is closed-loop,” says Graham. “What I see on the monitor is exactly what I print out.” In order for the colors in a reproduction to be accurately viewed, the studio has neutral gray walls and overhead lighting that simulates pure daylight

Clients can inspect the high-end reproductions on the walls of the studio, view samples of previous jobs, or examine some of the high-res files that he has captured. “I zoom in 100% and let clients see the dots in the canvas,” explains Graham. “Even at 100%, each corner is razor sharp.” 

 When you talk to Graham, you quickly understand that he’s not only passionate about reproducing the art to the best of his ability, he’s also passionate about the art. As he explains to visitors to his website, “I serve the vision of you, the artist, and put you in the driver’s seat while using state-of-the art technology.”

When some customers ask why doesn’t do serigraphs or lithographs, he explains that those methods aren’t “print-on-demand.” The prepress set-up requirements for serigraphy or lithography make it cost-prohibitive to produce only a few prints as needed. The ability to print only as many copies of a print as you can sell is a key advantage of digital-printing technology.

Plus, advances in inks and materials make it possible to produce prints on canvas and paper that will last for 100 to 150 years under typical gallery display conditions.

Inkjet printing technology has improved to the point that it’s nearly impossible to tell that the print is created from dots. As Graham observes: “Digital printing technology is so evolved, I don’t think anyone will go to lithography again.

For more information, visit the Graham Editions website: www.graham-editions.com

Lizza Fine Art Studio Can Handle Big Giclée Projects

Artists have traveled from as far away as South Africa to have their work reproduced at Lizza Fine Art Studios. According to Studio Manager Betsy Green, “Most visitors are delighted to discover such a high-tech studio based in such a quaint, small-town setting. The studio itself is a converted roller rink.”

The number of studios using wide-format, pigment-ink inkjet printers for fine-art reproduction has multiplied in recent years. Having more choices can be wonderful if you simply want to make a few copies of work that you can sell at art fairs, use to promote yourself, or give to friends and family members.      

But if you have special requirements such as extra-large print sizes or need hundreds of prints quickly, it’s important to know about giclée-printing studios that can efficiently produce the best possible reproductions. Significant differences exist in the type of image-capture and inkjet-printing equipment that various studios use for giclée printing. And some studio owners are more experienced in the world of art than others.

One company well-equipped to handle just about any type or size of art-reproduction project you might require is Lizza Fine Art Studios. Located in the small town of Tunkhannock in northeastern Pennsylvania, Lizza Fine Art Studios has handled projects for artists from as far away as South Africa, including artists who exhibit at the International Artexpo in New York each spring.

The studio’s founder Bob Lizza knows what matters to artists, because he is a painter himself. He also has an eye for color honed by graphic design and close to 20 years of experience in the print world. For Bob, giclée is more than a printing process; it the intersection of art and science—an act of creation leading to a work of art.

 

The final quality of the reproduced art depends largely on the quality of the image capture. Lizza Studios is one of the few giclee-printing studios in the US to have a Cruse C285 ST large-format, flatbed scanner.

Scanning Large Paintings: Because Lizza knows that every brush stroke and detail is important to the artistic integrity of a painting, he invested in the Cruse C285 ST scanner, one of the most technologically advanced, highest resolution scanners in the world. When a painting is placed on the bed of the scanner, a Synchron table system moves the art steadily under a bank of lights, providing even illumination as the image is captured using a large-format digital lens and a 10,000-pixel CCD array. The system was designed to minimize the amount of time the original painting is exposed to the levels of lighting needed to capture all the fine details in the art.

The Cruse C285 ST scanner can handle paintings as large as 60 in. x 90 in. in one pass and produce files sizes as large as 1 GB. Due to the efficiency of the lighting system and precision of the Synchron table, much larger originals can be accommodated. Positional lighting allows total control over how variances in textured surfaces can be captured.

Printing Large Jobs: Lizza Fine Art Studios has two 64-in. Epson Stylus Pro printers: an Epson Stylus Pro 11880 aqueous-ink printer and an Epson Stylus Pro GS6000 solvent-ink printer. Because it uses three densities of black inks, the Epson Stylus Pro 11880 is ideal for black-and-white photographs and images with subtle midtones. The Epson Stylus Pro GS6000 uses orange and green inks in combination with  traditional CMYK inks, making it possible to reproduce artwork with bold, vivid colors.  Because of the nature of the solvent inks, the GS6000 printer can print on less costly materials and run at faster speeds. Plus, the prints don’t require the additional step of adding a protective clearcoat. Thus, the Epson GS6000 can be used to produce higher quantities of art reproductions at more affordable prices.

An Eye for Color: No matter which printer is used to reproduce your work, Lizza knows how to achieve the best possible color match between the prints and your original art. Bob Lizza has spent more than 17 years scanning and matching originals, examining images on a computer monitor and managing colors that have been reduced to bits and bytes of data. Combining data gathered with high-quality color-measurement tools and his own eye for color, Bob can color match the vibrant red of an individual flower petal or the rich green in the eye of the trout.  If his naked eye sees any differences, such as greens that are just a shade too yellow, he knows how to adjust the colors until the match between the scanned image and the artwork is exact. Only when the color match is perfect is Bob ready to print.  He creates custom ICC profiles for the exact printing conditions and materials that will be used for your printing job. He knows how to adjust the profiles for precise, optimum control of the ink applied to the substrate.

After the Printing is Done: Lizza’s extreme attention to detail and service doesn’t end with the printing. For works printed on canvas, Lizza Fine Art Studios uses a spray system that provides a great deal of control over the varnishing process. They can lightly coat the print once, or apply two or three coats if you prefer a glossier look.

Lizza Fine Art Studio also provides custom-framing services. And if you request it, Lizza will issue a certificate of authenticity. The certificate not only assures buyers of your art that the piece is a genuine, limited-edition giclée, it also ensures that you have a record of what was printed, what substrate was used, the date it was printed, and how many pieces were produced.

As an artist himself, Bob Lizza believes that modern giclée printing is the best possible way to reproduce your original art. He points out that, “It has a higher resolution than lithography, and a wider color range than a serigraph.”

To learn more about Lizza Fine Art Studios, visit their website www.lizzastudios.com or call 570-836-8806. Or, you can read more about their work in the June issue of LexJet’s In Focus newsletter.

Giclée printing replicates the color, depth and texture of original works art by using sophisticated image-capture technology and wide-format inkjet printers that use six or more colors of pigment inks with the highest quality artist papers or canvases. Modern wide-format inkjet printers, such as the 64-in. Epson Stylus Pro 11800 and GS6000 printers used in Lizza Fine Art Studios, spray millions of droplets of ink per second onto canvases or art papers that have been pretreated to receive the ink. The spray of ink is so fine that the droplets cannot be seen by the naked eye. It takes a 10X or 15X loupe to see the black dots, which are the largest dots on the canvas or paper. A finished image is made up of close to 20 billion dots of ink, which are applied in continuous tone or stochastic screening patterns that can make it difficult to distinguish the final print from the original.

Fine-art printmaking studios across the US have purchased wide-format inkjet equipment and top-quality canvases and fine-art papers from LexJet. We will feature many of these other studios in upcoming posts on this blog. If you would like to locate a giclee printing studio in your area of the US, please call a LexJet account specialist at 888-873-7553.

Installing Epson Printers on a Network

If you’re seeking practical advice on how to set up a productive printing workflow for your photography studio, check out the Tips and Tricks section in LexJet’s monthly In Focus newsletter.

In Vol. 4, No. 5 published earlier this month, printing expert Tom Hauenstein explains how to install an Epson printer on a network. Whether you use a PC or a Mac, Tom outlines the steps required for a trouble-free setup. He also talks about free software that shows you which IP addresses on your network have been used and which addresses are still available.

Past issues of In Focus have discussed topics such as soft proofing in Adobe Photoshop and printing through Adobe Photoshop Lightroom.

If you have any inkjet photo-printing tips and tricks you’d like to share, or if you have questions you would like to see addressed in the In Focus newsletter, let us hear from you.  Either submit your suggestions here or call a LexJet account specialist at 888-873-7553.

In Focus is e-mailed monthly to photographers and other creative professionals who are interested in learning how to use pro-model inkjet photo printers to grow their businesses.

When you sign up for a subscription to the In Focus newsletter, you’ll be asked what type of printing equipment you use. This helps us make sure that the Tips and Tricks section of In Focus is relevant to your needs.