Giclee: Allpconline Company Blog
Sunday, November 28, 2004
Giclee printing: resolution and uni or bi directional
I want to clarify some misconceptions regarding a few printer characteristics that sometimes create confusion with perspective clients: DPI does not have to be the highest possible in order to create a great giclee print. The are professional printing systems that cost tens of thousands of dollars which rate between 200 and 400 DPI...Examples? The Lightjet (RA process) and the Iris (giclee and prepress)...Are these printers inferior to a $99 desktop printer rated at 1,440 DPI? Of course not. As a matter of fact, they are vastly superior in every aspect, including archival properties, color rendition, dot pattern etc. So, do not get stuck on DPI. It really doesn' t mean much.
Sometimes you will hear the terms uni or bi-directional, microweave, high speed in giclee printing. What this means is that the printer is capable to print in one direction or in both (when the carriage returns home). High speed, Bi-D printing is no better or worse: it is just faster because it can print another pass while the head is coming back. Bi-D printing is sometimes prone to vertical bending issues. This is mostly because the printer needs to make much more of an effort to stay on track when it is plotting in both directions.
Sometimes you will hear the terms uni or bi-directional, microweave, high speed in giclee printing. What this means is that the printer is capable to print in one direction or in both (when the carriage returns home). High speed, Bi-D printing is no better or worse: it is just faster because it can print another pass while the head is coming back. Bi-D printing is sometimes prone to vertical bending issues. This is mostly because the printer needs to make much more of an effort to stay on track when it is plotting in both directions.
Friday, November 26, 2004
Masking for color correction in preparation for giclee printing
Our giclee printing studio processes a sizeable amount of files daily. Pretty much everyone of them needs localized color correction. I will quickly explain some of the tools and techniques we use in Photoshop to accomplish area masking. Be advised though that some parts of this dissertation requires either intermediate or advanced knowledge of Photoshop.
First, the tools. As for hardware, we use a Wacom tablet. The reason is that when a mask needs to be brushed, we can control pressure and therefore create an organic shape, with no hard edges. For example, if we were to try to isolate an object that has been photographed with selective focus, where the front edges are sharp and the back is soft, the only way to do this is to brush a mask with very little feather in front and more feather in the back. Yes, you can do it with a mouse but it would take 3 times as long and it would not be as clean!
Second, the soft tools in Photoshop: the magic wand is a good starting step when homogenous areas are present, such as a white background. Tolerance can be adjusted to be able to grab what is wanted. Color range is even better because you can preview your results. To make the perfect mask, the best way is to quickmask. Press Q on the keyboard and make sure black is selected as your foreground color. When you paint the mask, you can preview the ares that are being masked out (not selected). When done, press Q again and the mask will turn active. You can save the mask as an alpha channel. Remember, what you are masking is the area that will not be affected by the selection (There is a way to change this but we assume Photoshop defaults). You can still paint an area you want to select, such as a small object: make the selection active, and go to the top menu -> select->inverse and the area you masked will turn into your active area. There are many other ways to mask and many other tools. If you have a request, please e-mail us or post a comment and we will be happy to comply!
First, the tools. As for hardware, we use a Wacom tablet. The reason is that when a mask needs to be brushed, we can control pressure and therefore create an organic shape, with no hard edges. For example, if we were to try to isolate an object that has been photographed with selective focus, where the front edges are sharp and the back is soft, the only way to do this is to brush a mask with very little feather in front and more feather in the back. Yes, you can do it with a mouse but it would take 3 times as long and it would not be as clean!
Second, the soft tools in Photoshop: the magic wand is a good starting step when homogenous areas are present, such as a white background. Tolerance can be adjusted to be able to grab what is wanted. Color range is even better because you can preview your results. To make the perfect mask, the best way is to quickmask. Press Q on the keyboard and make sure black is selected as your foreground color. When you paint the mask, you can preview the ares that are being masked out (not selected). When done, press Q again and the mask will turn active. You can save the mask as an alpha channel. Remember, what you are masking is the area that will not be affected by the selection (There is a way to change this but we assume Photoshop defaults). You can still paint an area you want to select, such as a small object: make the selection active, and go to the top menu -> select->inverse and the area you masked will turn into your active area. There are many other ways to mask and many other tools. If you have a request, please e-mail us or post a comment and we will be happy to comply!
Monday, November 22, 2004
Giclee Printing: A Revenue Source
Let's face it: you spend a lot ot time and effort to create your art. Someone buys it and that's the end of the story: done, no more revenue. In addition, the art is only viewed in one place at the time. In the past it was a hard sell to convince an uncompromising artist to reproduce artwork to a lesser quality medium such as lithography (with all the limitations in color and paper type).
Giclee printing has changed the way art is sold and the quality expected by the most descerning buyers. Now collectors can have a limited edition giclee, even embellished by the artist, on canvas, watercolor etc.
Giclee printing is a very specialized field; although the equipment is not terribly expensive (a wide format giclee printer starts at around $5,000), the file preparation entailing image capturing and color correction is a complicated matter. It requires a deep understanding of gamut, secondary and primary color behavior. We see sign shops (which already own most of all the equipment required to produce giclees) jumping onto the fine art reproduction bandwagon with no personnel capable of making high quality, true to the original giclee printing. Do not be afraid to ask questions and do not settle for "close enough to the original" excuses. Although sometimes some original colors cannot be duplicated, very often it is possible to make the perfect print.
Giclee printing has changed the way art is sold and the quality expected by the most descerning buyers. Now collectors can have a limited edition giclee, even embellished by the artist, on canvas, watercolor etc.
Giclee printing is a very specialized field; although the equipment is not terribly expensive (a wide format giclee printer starts at around $5,000), the file preparation entailing image capturing and color correction is a complicated matter. It requires a deep understanding of gamut, secondary and primary color behavior. We see sign shops (which already own most of all the equipment required to produce giclees) jumping onto the fine art reproduction bandwagon with no personnel capable of making high quality, true to the original giclee printing. Do not be afraid to ask questions and do not settle for "close enough to the original" excuses. Although sometimes some original colors cannot be duplicated, very often it is possible to make the perfect print.
Wednesday, November 17, 2004
Color correcting by numbers for giclee printing
I am posting an article I wrote regarding color correcting on screen for printing purposes. This allows the artist or technician to rely less on a monitor and more on numbers. As alway, you can go to our giclee printing website to get more information about this exciting medium. Enjoy!
Color correcting images on screen for digital output is one of the most problematic issues in digital imaging. What was a task left to pre-press professionals in the past and something of no concern with the general public using film cameras, has now become a must for anyone using a digital camera. Over the years there have been a number of companies offering color calibration hardware and software to match what is seen on screen to the actual printout. Soft proofing (the ability to see an image on the monitor and being able to make a pretty good judgment about how it is going to look when printed) is definitely of big help.
This said, the only sure way to be able to precisely color correct is done by numbers. To make a comparison, take a pilot for example: when visibility is low pilots rely on what the instruments say to navigate. No matter if it is day or night, they can navigate without having to see where they are and where they are going.
The same can be applied to color correction. Depending on a monitor to apply color changes, especially when subtle modifications need to be made, is not the best way. All computer screens shift in color from the moment they are turned on. Numbers do not change.
Photoshop makes it very easy to see what the color measurements are for any given area in an image. The eye picker will read the quantity of red, green and blue when passed over the chosen area. For the purpose of this article we will stay with the RGB primary color space. When looking at a pure black the reading will be R=0, B=0, G=0. A pure white will be R=255, B=255, G=255, 255 being the maximum amount in the scale. What is between pure white and pure black? Grey, which can be any equal amount of these 3 colors, would be for example 122, 122, 122. A lighter grey is 180, 180, 180.
Why is this important? Simply put, very! Let’ s go into something practical: You are working on a picture of your toddler taken with that high-resolution camera you got for Christmas. It looks good on the screen but when printed the skin tones make your child look like he is blushing under 110 F heat. When going over the skin with the picker the reading is R=200, G=140, B=139. Immediately the red reading of 200 pops out as a lot compared to the fairly equal and lesser quantities of green and blue. Without looking at a proof you can see how that skin will be primarily red. It is OK for skin tones to have a mix of colors and for a Caucasian complexion to have a higher level of red. A difference of about 60 between red and the other two primaries may be excessive. Also, a warm skin tone requires a little bit of yellow to be present. In our case the initial reading for B and G is about equal, meaning they neutralize each other and make the red stand out as the preponderant color. To add a little yellow we need to decrease the blue (Blue and Yellow are opposites). In this case a good mix for such skin tone could be R=190, G=140, B=130.
These numbers are not to be taken literally but as a guide to create a pleasing balance. Practice taking color readings in different areas of an image. Look at the printed proof. You will soon learn to correct by numbers and be free from monitor shifting!
Color correcting images on screen for digital output is one of the most problematic issues in digital imaging. What was a task left to pre-press professionals in the past and something of no concern with the general public using film cameras, has now become a must for anyone using a digital camera. Over the years there have been a number of companies offering color calibration hardware and software to match what is seen on screen to the actual printout. Soft proofing (the ability to see an image on the monitor and being able to make a pretty good judgment about how it is going to look when printed) is definitely of big help.
This said, the only sure way to be able to precisely color correct is done by numbers. To make a comparison, take a pilot for example: when visibility is low pilots rely on what the instruments say to navigate. No matter if it is day or night, they can navigate without having to see where they are and where they are going.
The same can be applied to color correction. Depending on a monitor to apply color changes, especially when subtle modifications need to be made, is not the best way. All computer screens shift in color from the moment they are turned on. Numbers do not change.
Photoshop makes it very easy to see what the color measurements are for any given area in an image. The eye picker will read the quantity of red, green and blue when passed over the chosen area. For the purpose of this article we will stay with the RGB primary color space. When looking at a pure black the reading will be R=0, B=0, G=0. A pure white will be R=255, B=255, G=255, 255 being the maximum amount in the scale. What is between pure white and pure black? Grey, which can be any equal amount of these 3 colors, would be for example 122, 122, 122. A lighter grey is 180, 180, 180.
Why is this important? Simply put, very! Let’ s go into something practical: You are working on a picture of your toddler taken with that high-resolution camera you got for Christmas. It looks good on the screen but when printed the skin tones make your child look like he is blushing under 110 F heat. When going over the skin with the picker the reading is R=200, G=140, B=139. Immediately the red reading of 200 pops out as a lot compared to the fairly equal and lesser quantities of green and blue. Without looking at a proof you can see how that skin will be primarily red. It is OK for skin tones to have a mix of colors and for a Caucasian complexion to have a higher level of red. A difference of about 60 between red and the other two primaries may be excessive. Also, a warm skin tone requires a little bit of yellow to be present. In our case the initial reading for B and G is about equal, meaning they neutralize each other and make the red stand out as the preponderant color. To add a little yellow we need to decrease the blue (Blue and Yellow are opposites). In this case a good mix for such skin tone could be R=190, G=140, B=130.
These numbers are not to be taken literally but as a guide to create a pleasing balance. Practice taking color readings in different areas of an image. Look at the printed proof. You will soon learn to correct by numbers and be free from monitor shifting!
Monday, November 15, 2004
New giclee coating for artist's canvas - Giclee printing on canvas
I response to demands from artists who travel to open air shows we have introduced a new acrylic coating for canvas. These artists have mainly had 2 requests:
First, additional scratch resistance to protect canvas from touching, loading and unloading of the giclees. If you have ever been at a large art show you have seen how it is a given to see people touching or bumping on art.
Second, texture: canvas, when just sprayed, retains an even surface look. By applying a coating with a brush we can introuduce a clear texture which is very beautiful. On the other hand if texturing is not wanted the coating can be applied to the giclee very evenly.
Either way the main result is an extremely durable finish to the giclee, very similar to the surface of an oil or acrylic. We have not priced the service yet because it is a custom feature with variable time involved. It takes longer to coat with a brush (if texturing is preferred) rater than using a roller...
First, additional scratch resistance to protect canvas from touching, loading and unloading of the giclees. If you have ever been at a large art show you have seen how it is a given to see people touching or bumping on art.
Second, texture: canvas, when just sprayed, retains an even surface look. By applying a coating with a brush we can introuduce a clear texture which is very beautiful. On the other hand if texturing is not wanted the coating can be applied to the giclee very evenly.
Either way the main result is an extremely durable finish to the giclee, very similar to the surface of an oil or acrylic. We have not priced the service yet because it is a custom feature with variable time involved. It takes longer to coat with a brush (if texturing is preferred) rater than using a roller...
