Digital Fine Art Workflow
The main steps to creating a digital fine art (giclée) print are:
- Create your artwork
- Scanning
- Manipulate image
Whether you are a publisher, artist or photographer you will need to consider the best way to capture your artwork, how to adjust the digitised image on your computer and effective colour management to ensure as close a copy to the original as possible.
Artwork
Take your original piece of artwork: watercolour, oil, acrylic, silk painting, pastel, pencil, pen and ink drawing, etching, screenprint, photograph, textiles or any two dimensional work.
Prepare your artwork for scanning or photographing by fixing pastel drawings, making sure that oil and acrylic paintings are completely dry and removing all frames and mounts if possible.
Scanning
Any
artwork that is flat can be scanned,
however if the piece of work is too big to fit on your own flatbed scanner,
then consider using a local professional photographer to digitise your artwork.
Most professional photographers now use large format digital cameras and
have the correct lighting to adequately capture a large piece of artwork.
The important thing to understand about scanning is the resolution of the scanned image. The higher the resolution of a scanned image the more information is held. The resolution of an image is measured in "ppi" (pixels per inch), this is sometimes referred to as "dpi" (dots per inch). The "dots" refer to the pixels that make up the image.
There is a basic rule of scanning that if you follow, will give you high enough quality results to print successfully: if you are scanning from an image and want a print to be the same size then scan at 300 ppi (e.g. if your original is A4 and you scan it and print on an A4 sheet = 300 ppi). To print to twice the size then scan at 600 ppi, and so on doubling the scanning resolution in relation to the size of the original image. (e.g. if your original is A4 and you scan it to print on an A3 sheet = 600 ppi.)
Remember, it doesn’t matter how good the quality of the printer is, if you don’t capture enough information initially, it will always appear pixelated.
If you are digitally creating your artwork using programs such as Adobe Photoshop or Adobe Illustrator, then you need to consider what the maximum size you wish to reproduce your finished work and ensure the file size is appropriate. In Photoshop you would create a new document setting the width and height and selecting 300ppi (pixels per inch) for the resolution. Adobe Illustrator can allow you to create vector graphics which are scalable to any output size.
Image Manipulation and Colour Management
There are many image editing or manipulation programs to choose, from the expensive Adobe Photoshop to the mid range Corel Paint Shop Pro and finally the free of charge GNU Image Manipulation Program "a freely distributed piece of software for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring. It works on many operating systems, in many languages".
Your image editing or manipulation program will allow you to tidy up your scanned artwork, such as cropping, rotating, resizing, adding text and changing the contrast and colour balance.
Colour mode - all scanners and digital cameras work in RGB mode and it is best to keep your scan file in this colour space rather than CMYK, RGB is a larger colour space than CMYK so more colours can be rendered. The only time you would need to work in CMYK is for press reproduction in books or magazines. Photoshop users should include an ICC input profile and select sRGB or Adobe RGB (1998) as the working colour space.
At this stage you may want to request a proof print on your chosen media or if you are not sure if your file is suitable for printing then just upload your image file, state your preferred print size and we will email you back a free report on your image file's suitability to print at that size and to highlight any other issues that may effect the quality of your print.
A proof print will allow you to check what kind of results you may get as what you see on your monitor is not always a true representation of what will print out. You can then adjust the colours and contrast accordingly, proofing the image again as you go along.
Printing
Which Hahnemühle paper should you use?
It is a personal preference, however, some papers do seem more suited to certain types of work. For example, the Photo Rag compliments detailed and continual tones of photographic or computer generated work. German Etching is also a smooth surface but with a softer surface texture, and is more natural white in colour which suits detailed watercolours or sketches. Other papers that have a more prominent surface texture tend to suit pastels and oil reproductions.
Limited Edition Printing
The main advantage of publishing 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 the whole process. Remember to always sign, date and number your limited editions.
Use the Hahnemühle Hologram system for added authenticity and security. The Hahnemühle Certificate of Authenticity is designed to protect the security and exclusivity of you limited edition art works and reproductions, and reduce the risk of forgery. It comprises a set of two holograms for each print edition, one for the reverse side of the print and one for the certificate of authenticity. Each hologram set has the same alphanumerical number. To further protect the art works they can be registered on the internet.
Archivability
In recent years the market for limited edition giclée prints has moved to a new level with the introduction of pigment ink sets. In some cases artists prefer these inks as they have set new standards in this area (generally desktop printers use inks that are dye based but will fade faster).
Redcliffe Imaging has installed the latest 12 colour Canon iPF8000 printer that uses red, blue, green, grey, photo grey, cyan, photo cyan, magenta, photo magenta, yellow, regular black, and matte black LUCIA pigment inks. The twelve pigment ink colours enable the iPF8000 printer to render magnificent colour and neutral, stable grayscales.
There are basically two criteria for ageing: the paper and the print:
Papers must be acid free and between pH 7 - 9 to comply with the Fine Art Trade Guild specifications for a fine art print.
All Hahnemühle papers are extremely resistant to ageing in compliance with DIN 6738 and offer the highest life expectancy of several hundred years. The permanence of the print, i.e. the colour adherence is ink dependent and with UV resistant pigmented inks can last for more than 100 years.
There are a number of other things that can be added to a giclée after printing to enhance it. These include:
- Hand embellishing - painting onto the print with paints to pick out certain colours or textures.
- Varnish the print - which will protect and can create a gloss finish. This is particularly effective when printing onto canvas.
- Framing - mount and frame your giclée print.
- Remember, it is the correct combination of media, ink and equipment that makes a successful giclée print.
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