Giclee printing vs digital printing??

[Chris Wool]

hi monty

as i understand it Giclee printing is the posh word for injet prints but.
i see it as this if i do a print on my epson 9500 at 1400 dpi and useing top pigmented inks and a acid free resin photo paper that is then a Giclee print.
if i use my 6 colour solvent at high res on to special coated canvas i would say that is but not from my desktop machines. now to put my foot in it.

4 colour machines although very good are not considered quite good enough for this work but are fantastic for raps and general sign related stuff.

chris

[Les Woods]

Hi Monty (and everyone else here – I’m a longterm lurker signing on for the first time :)),

The word ‘giclée’ means ‘to spray’ which is how all inkjet printers work – solvent, pigment and dye based. It means ‘ejaculate’ in france (so I’m told), hence the term ‘giclée print’ is not that widely used – how many customers would walk into a shop asking for a ‘Ejaculation Print’?!

We produce a lot of giclée prints for artists and photographiers on our Canon W8200PG which uses pigmented inks. The dye-based machines aren’t so good at canvas prints if you’re applying a varnish it may affect the ink (someone I know found the ink slid off when using giclée varnish!).

The most important thing is that the prints are UV stable for many years – not 3 or 5 but 75 years+. Although its not outdoors it will be expected to last for at least 75 years.

Colour accuracy is important to our customers; particularly artists who are highly critical (and rightly so) of their ‘babies’. This means your printer should be profiled to the media you’re outputting to – in our case we use 100% cotton canvas which we then pass on to our framer who stretches them over the wooden frames.

I don’t think you can swap the inks over (we can’t with the Canon) but that may be different with solvent printers which I don’t know much about.

I would definately advise pigmented ink machines – the canon w8200pg is great in my experience and I’d recommend it without a problem.

We also use the printer to do banners, point of sale and exhibition displays and the ink lasts quite a while. It outputs up to 44" wide and is quite fast – we use Macs here but it works with PCs as well.

Hope the above helps and hope to get more involved in the forum soon!

Les

[Andrew Boyle]

Monty,

speak to my pal Ali he’s out your way all the time…he wouldn’t mind you contacting him…..he’s very particular and has his own printer etc…

http://alastairhouston.com/uae.html

[monty]

thanks for the advice and guidance…. Im keen to get a sign printer/cutter but l want to also kill two birds with one stone and get one that prints good quality fine art prints as well as signs, banners etc etc as I love doing all types of graphics wk, so i guess i will have to research and see whats out there.
thanks for the help

[Richard Barker]

hi

sorry to hijack this thread!! 😳

les: I too have a W8200PG, i am a complete novice that is trying to learn the art of putting images to canvas.

Where do you get your canvas from and whats the cost?

one last question: do you only do images from a digital camera, i have been trying to resize web images and have just found out you cannot really resize 72dpi that much. do you use a website for stock images? i am trying to put landscapes on to canvas.

any help will be appreciated

[Les Woods]

Hi Citroen,

I use Ability canvas (100% cotton) from PaperCo who also supply scrim banner, microporus photographic satin etc.

Minimum resolution (in Photoshop) at final print size is 150dpi which is just as good as 300dpi but quicker to rip.

Digital pix & scans are fine as is artwork from Illustrator etc; I had a 6 megapixel image blown up to 1 metre square and it looks great.

We use pigmented inks which are suitable for varnishing with giclée varnish – if you have a dye based version then the ink may slide off when you varnish so you’d have to get a dye-safe-based varnish. Apply with a Purdy brush (not from The Avengers btw!) in vertical strokes and don’t overlap. Two coats and you’re uv safe & water-resistant.

http://www.istockphoto.com are good for stock photos but you’d have to check the useage rights as you may not be able to resell them unless you pay a premium.

I work on a Macintosh system so can’t use some of the sign programs but Photoshop does a sterling job and the colour accuracy is good too when you set it to Perceptual & sRGB (Canon).

Hope that helps!

[Richard Barker]

hi

i am trying to put images like this onto canvas

any ideas where i can get images like these, or are they standard images that have been put through photoshop?

does i-stock, corbis etc have images like this?

thanks

[Les Woods]

Possibly; looks like its been done in Bryce (3D worlds/landscape program) and taken into Photoshop.

You may even be able to get them already on canvas from eBay. 😕

[Richard Barker]

hi les

i would like to put them onto canvas..

just need to know how to create the images.

do you use the stock photo sites?

thanks

[Richard Barker]

hi les again…

do you think these can be produced using a W8200?

thanks

[Pauly]

You shouldnt have nay trouble printing that on the canon, although it probably wont be as vibrant as the picture you posted; especially on cavas as its generally not a bright white like a card or poster paper might be.

[Les Woods]

Hi Citroen,

This is the prog you need: http://bryce.daz3d.com/55index.php

I don’t create images like that although I have dabbled with the prog in the past. I use istockphoto now and then but that’s mainly for when I’m doing brochures and such (I also have a Canon CLC 3220 which is an SRA3 digital printer which is ideal for that sort of stuff).

The Canon W8200 is perfect for canvases (thats mainly what we output) but as Pauly said, images seem flatter on canvas than on photographic satin or gloss papers.

Also, pigmented inks don’t have as wide a gamut as dye-based inks which means that they’re a little less vibrant but still good enough for artworks. Also, pigment inks are more uv stable and water resistant than dye inks.

You’ll find there are less materials available for pigmented inks than you can get for dye inks. This means you need to try different types before ordering them – use PaperCo; they’re really good and send out sample rolls to try.

[steve-rogers]

hello there…

In answer to your question…..I dont believe there is a printer that will do both excellently…….There are printers that will do both adequately but the fine art brigade are sticklers for quality……..epson for fine art…….all the others for anything else…….Epson hideously expensive to run though.

Citroen….Have you tried ticking the save roll paper box in the print preview box?…….9 a sq. metre??….shocking price……you shouldnt be paying more than 60.00 a roll for 44"……

those images are produced in bryce……not cheap for someone to do for you though, they take 24 hours to render!……..

just my little bit….cheers steve

[Richard Barker]

Thanks for the reply Steve

you say i should not pay more than £60 for a roll of 44", do you mean paper or canvas?. its canvas i need and i cant find anything around that price.

could you let me know which supplier.

thanks

[Les Woods]

We pay @ £130 for 44" x 15m ability canvas 100% cotton – its a lot but when you’re dealing with fine-art reproductions you’ve got to use quality materials, believe me.

Some canvases have a bright white coating but can feel almost like vinyl whereas the ability is slightly off white and has a more pronounced texture which is very popular with artists.

About 60-70% of our business is fine-art and we did our research which made us settle on this particular product (from PaperCo) as its been a big hit with all of our customers.

[Les Woods]

P.S. even though £130 per roll is a lot (around £8.95 per square metre) you have to remember that these are going to be resold and as such can have a higher retail price – anything up to £95.00 per metre.

You’ve got to make sure you’ve got the colour accuracy bang-on as this is important to your target market too.

[steve-rogers]

i pay 73.00 plus vat for 60 " warhol 410gsm.12m or 83.00 plus vat for xativa 400gsm 60" 15m………

But then again we use at least 60 rolls a month……

[David-Foster-]

Hi Steve and Les, so you produce artwork printed on cavas, deep box frames?
Be nice to see your work.
I do original box frame canvases.
Cheers

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