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A “Giclée”
print is essentially a piece of printed artwork or photograph
produced by using a high quality digital inkjet printer.
These printers use superior technology to 'normal' inkjet
printers and ink is sprayed through much finer jets. The
inks used are specially formulated and compatible with the
extreme fineness of the printer head that spurts jets of
ink in minute droplets at a high resolution. These prints
are produced on high quality art papers which have been
specially coated to accept this type of printing.
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One
of the main differences
between home and professional printers are the inks
that they use. Conventional home inkjet printers often
use dye-based inks, which usually have a high water
content and can fade very quickly. Giclée printers
use pigment-based inks, which are far more concentrated
and are far more resistant to fading. We use Epson Ultrachrome
inks, which are award winning and industry leading inks.
Our printers use eight different ink cartridges to give
the best possible colour reproduction. Our main printer
has three different black cartridges which produces
exceptional black and white prints, which can rival
traditional silver-halide prints.
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Pigment
inks create prints which are more resistant to harmful conditions.
When combined with professional papers the prints have a high
resistance to light damage, moisture, humidity and ozone.
A print should always be displayed sensibly behind glass,
and avoiding excessive direct sunlight and moisture. Independent
testing by Wilhelm Imaging Research (www.wilhelm-research.com)
shows that our prints should be light-fast for over 75 years,
and have a high resistance to humidity and ozone. When
printed on good quality heavyweight art paper it is possible
to produce long-lasting prints that are more stable than the
original artwork.
We always
use genuine Ultrachrome inks, and never use cheap alternatives.
Another test by Wilhelm Imaging Research on Epson Durabrite
inks proved the false economy of cheap inks. The genuine Epson
ink gave light-fast values of 105 years, but when printed
on the same printer with cheap ink and paper the print was
only light-fast for 0.2 years.
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Another
very important factor to consider is the paper used. There are
many different types of inkjet paper on the market, and it can
get very confusing. We use genuine Epson papers which have been
specifically designed for use with Epson printers. The prints
in our shop are printed using Archival Matte paper. Although
glossy paper is traditionally used for photographs we have found
that the the Archival Matte paper reduces reflection and gives
a better end result. Print permanence tests have also shown
that matte prints can last over twenty years longer than glossy
prints. As we strive to produce the best product that we can
we tend to prefer Archival Matte paper, but we also like to
offer choice so we can use glossy paper if it is what you prefer. |
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The prints
in our online shop are printed at set sizes across the range.
If you want a different size please contact us.
The two
sizes of landscape prints are given as 'A4' and 'A3' but this
is an approximation to help people visualise the print size
based on the paper size. The 'A4' image is actually 270 mm
x 180 mm and the 'A3' image is printed as 400 mm x 270 mm.
This is the size that the image is printed at.
Panoramic
prints are 450 mm x 130 mm, but can be printed much larger
on request.
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Our photographs
are sold as limited edition prints, and are individually numbered
and hand-signed. Each print is issued with a Certificate of
Authenticity proving the unique print number. Images may also
be available as art cards. When all prints are sold the image
is deleted from the print range. Some images are shown twice
on our website as they were taken on a district boundary and
appear in both galleries (e.g. NC028 & RES016) but the
print run is not doubled as they are treated as the same print.
A small number of images were previously available as open
edition prints but the exact number produced was accurately
recorded (less than ten in all cases) and has been deducted
from the limited edition run.
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The
example certificate is shown for illustration purposes and is NOT
a copy of an actual Certificate of Authenticity.
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