giclée printing service

We offer a giclée printing service to artists, photographers, galleries and publishers wishing to publish high quality short run prints.

advantages of giclée printing:

• archival - lightfastness
• wide colour gamut - superb colour rendering
• super high resolution - sharpness and detail
• low quantity and 'on demand' printing
• print on beautiful papers and other media
• for photographers: pure digital workflow from capture to print
• digital archiving of files rather than negatives, transparencies or plates.

giclée printing - a brief guide

The term 'giclée' originated in the USA as a rather pretentious way of distancing professional digital printing for the fine art market, from the consumer inkjet machines and large format plotters which used similar but more basic technology and non lightfast inks. The French origins of the word refers to a 'little squirt' but despite this slightly unfortunate connection, the term caught on. Rather like 'serigraph' for screen prints, a giclée print is now the recognised term for high quality fine art or digitally produced photographic print.

The giclée print distinguishes itself from standard inkjet or offset litho prints by three important factors: 1. the archival (UV resistant qualities of the inks) 2. the archival qualities of the paper/materials used and 3. The resolution and colour accuracy of the printed output. The technology behind a giclée print is quite amazing and the difference in quality from this form of digital printing compared to conventional offset litho, is like a CD or MP3 file played on a state-of-the-art audio system compared to a vinyl 45 played on an old turntable.

The great breakthrough in quality printing for art and photography came with the production of pigment based inks that have both wide colour gamuts and UV resistant qualities. Epson led the way in the production of these professional grade inks and Micro Piezo technology in the print heads. This allowed larger format prints to be produced at super high resolutions. The breakthrough was as recent as May 2000, but the technology has in this short space of time revolutionised photographic and art printing.

our standards

Our prints are produced using the high end Epson machines with Epson Ultrachrome inks. We use only the highest grade archival papers and combine this with a fully colour managed system. As well as using the high technology and finest papers, we use the good old fashioned principle of an eye for detail to ensure the highest quality in print production. Every print is carefully monitored by us and is printed at 1440dpi.

supplying digital files for print:

file resolution
As a guide 300ppi (pixels per inch) is the recommended resolution for files to up to A2. For files up to A1 we recommend 200ppi. Because of the nature of the way giclee printers render the image, it is possible to get fine quality prints from A2 files at 200ppi so if file size of your original is an issue, send us the file let us advise on the maximum size achievable.

With Giclée printing, print resolution is far higher than file resolution (the opposite to conventional litho) so the results are perfectly smooth rendering without any visible dot or screening.

file formats

We can work from most file formats, but we recommend you supply your files as maximum quality JPEGs. This will not lose any quality from a TIFF or PSD file provided that you do not resize the file. If you are enlarging or reducing an image in size, use TIFF or PSD format to perform the image manipulation then finally save as a JPEG for compression purposes - but remember to save at maximum quality (level 12).
If you wish us to resize an image then please supply in TIFF format.

colour space - RGB or CMYK?

RGB has a wider colour gamut than CMYK and for digital printing there is no need to convert files to CMYK. For your working profile, Adobe RGB (1998) has a wider gamut colour than sRGB and is recommended for ultimate colour rendering.

price guides (ex vat and delivery)

310gsm German Etching, 308gsm Photo Rag or 315gsm Innova Natural white:
A4 £9
A3 £14
A2 £21
A1 £36

Discounts:
5-9 copies -10%
10-24 copies -15%
25-49 copies -25%

We can print at any size, so use the above as as a guide and contact us for a quote if you need a special size or format.

prints on 340gsm Cotton canvas:

12x12in £18.00
12x16in £23.00
16x16in £28.00
19x15in £42.00
19x19in £44.00
24x16in £49.00
24x19in £54.00
30x19in £59.00
40x19in £65.00

printed and stretched on premium 45mm thick stretcher bars with wedges for tightening:
12x12in £35.00
12x16in £42.00
16x16in £50.00
19x15in £65.00
19x19in £69.00
24x16in £75.00
24x19in £85.00
30x19in £95.00
40x19in £105.00

Images can be wrapped around the sides or sized to the front face only of the canvas.

We can print at any size, so use the above as as a guide and contact us for a quote if you need a special size or format.

archival art papers:

hahnemuehle photo rag
Sets the standard in photographic printing - beautiful smooth uncoated feel with superb colour accuracy. 100% cotton, slight texture and natural off white in colour.

hahnemuehle german etching
As the names suggests - a soft textured etching paper, off white in colour, again with superb colour accuracy.

innova natural white
Slightly smoother and stiffer in feel than German Etching but with excellent colour accuracy. Less cream, more neutral in colour than the Hahnemuehle papers.

canvas:

340gsm premium cotton canvas
A matt coated, premium bright white cotton canvas with probably the best colour rendering ability on the market. Water resistant so can be varnished.