Fine Art Trade Guild Print Standards
The aim of all self publishing artists, illustrators and photographers is to sell more of their work and ensure that potential customers have confidence to buy their work. If you are trying to develop a premium pricing structure when selling your work then you must be sure that your prints meet high technical specifications. It would be disastrous for your reputation if someone paid a large sum of money for a print that didn’t do justice to your artwork, that quickly faded or was produced on a paper that started to discolour.
Fine Art Trade Guild Accredited Printer
Redcliffe Imaging is a Fine Art Trade Guild Accredited Fine Art Printer. Only prints by members of the Guild conforming to Guild Standards can use the Guild logo. The Guild sets standards for print publishing in order to protect the interests of the public and maintain confidence in the publishing of fine art. Artists, publishers and fine art printers are encouraged to promote their high production standards and the integrity of their limited editions by following Guild Standards and should ideally be used in conjunction with BS 7876:1996.
This is an immensely powerful marketing tool. The standards state, for example, that prints must have light fast qualities of at least Blue Wool Scale 6. The Blue Wool Scale test has a long history as a testing regime so results can be compared over a very long period. This is especially useful in relation to the new technology of digital printing. If the colours of a print made 40 years ago remain light fast, then a print which meets the same benchmark today can be expected to last as long.
Key requirement of the Print Standards:
- Lightfastness of finished print - results of 6 or more on the Blue Wool Scale in all areas of the print - or its equivalent under empirical test conditions.
- Guild standard pH for substrate of 7-9, amended September 2002 to pH 7-10 (interim position).
- Minimum weight of substrate of 250gsm.
- It is recommended that prints carry the following information: title; artist's and, where different, publisher's name; the year; country of origin; the international copyright symbol; the words 'Published to Fine Art Trade Guild Standards' plus the Guild logo.
- The following information should also accompany the print: substrate, ink type, production method and machine details. In the case of a limited edition print, the maximum number in the edition worldwide, plus specifics relating to variations in size, substrate etc. as may be applicable to some editions (eg giclées) should also be included.
- No print should claim to meet the Guild Print Standards unless the producer has had a print tested by a UKAS approved laboratory during the previous 12 months, and that they are using an identical print method, materials and equipment to the print that has passed.
Limited edition prints
- The Guild recommends that edition size is kept below 850, including artists' proofs, worldwide.
- A limited edition print is based on an agreement between the licensor, usually the artist or artist's estate, as holder of the copyright, and the licensee, usually the publisher. The Guild recommends that the licensor agrees that no previous reproductions have been made and that neither he nor his heirs will allow an image to be published again. The publisher promises not to exceed the agreed print run, and all matrices and/or origination materials and overs have been or will be destroyed on completion of the print run/edition size.
- No part or whole of a print published as limited edition should be reproduced in any other form anywhere in the world, except for the sole purpose of promotion, eg in a brochure, sales literature or in a book.
- Specific documentation with full disclosure should accompany any print described as limited edition. Minimum standards of ink and paper must be met.
For more information or advice on Giclee Printing call Tim Sale or Adrian Chambers on 0117 952 0105 or use the contact form to tell us your requirements, we can suggest the most appropriate solution for your fine art printing needs.
