A Bit of Background....
Chooprint came about originally because we became excited by the possibilities of digital printmaking. Lyn and Pedro were doing a postgraduate course in digital artwork and animation, and the design office I was working in had a large format digital printer capable of producing large areas of flat brilliant colour. I became very interested in how I could apply it to my own artwork. I also liked it because it’s a semi-industrial modern process - similar to screen printing which I’ve also worked in and found very satisfying.
The first decision we had to make was what size of prints we wanted to produce and which model of printer to buy. There was an overwhelming (and confusing) choice on offer. We decided to buy a Hewlett Packard Designjet 130, capable of producing A2+ size prints, on paper up to 300gsm, which seemed reasonably priced at around £1000, and was well reviewed. This later turned out to be a mistake which I’ll go into further on.
We tried several different papers and settled on Somerset Enhanced Velvet 225gsm. After experimenting with different settings and output from different file formats we found that the best most predictable results were achieved using Photoshop native (.psd) or tiff files.
We’ve all developed our own ways of working - I tend to work on my ideas initially in a sketchbook which I’ll then take into illustrator. Once I’ve got an artwork which is ready for output, I’ll open it up in photoshop and save it as a tiff file. From there I’ll produce a series of A4 size proofs output from the printer, tweaking the colour settings until I’m happy with the result.
Another early decision was to use a website to show and sell the work, which seemed appropriate given the digital origins of the prints. Putting the work on a website also allows us to show the work how and when we want to - effectively running an online gallery.
I put the website together and we decided on a name - chooprint.com - chosen for it’s quirkiness. The website went online in early 2006.
The problem with the Designjet printer emerged a few months after we bought it, and was down to the type of ink used in the machine. What we didn’t realise to begin with is that there are two different types of ink used in inkjet printing - dye based inks and pigment inks. Dye based inks give a more brilliant colour but are less stable than pigment inks - the Designjet uses dye based ink.
There was a noticable fading in the prints after a month or two, and the tendency to do this seemed particularly strong in colours towards the reddish end of the spectrum. We made enquiries to see if the problem could be resolved by using a different paper type, which led to us doing our own lightfastness tests - mostly through exposing printed samples to direct sunlight and comparing the results. In the end we made a decision to swap the Designjet for a printer which used pigment inks.
Ultimately, we decided, prints output using dye based inks would not be considered true fine art giclee prints. We sold our original printer on ebay and bought an Epson 3800 large format printer, which is the printer we currently use.
One thing I didn't realise at the time is that art produced on a high quality inkjet printer has a name - giclée. Follow this link for more information: www.giclee-information.org/giclee_history.html
The first decision we had to make was what size of prints we wanted to produce and which model of printer to buy. There was an overwhelming (and confusing) choice on offer. We decided to buy a Hewlett Packard Designjet 130, capable of producing A2+ size prints, on paper up to 300gsm, which seemed reasonably priced at around £1000, and was well reviewed. This later turned out to be a mistake which I’ll go into further on.
We tried several different papers and settled on Somerset Enhanced Velvet 225gsm. After experimenting with different settings and output from different file formats we found that the best most predictable results were achieved using Photoshop native (.psd) or tiff files.
We’ve all developed our own ways of working - I tend to work on my ideas initially in a sketchbook which I’ll then take into illustrator. Once I’ve got an artwork which is ready for output, I’ll open it up in photoshop and save it as a tiff file. From there I’ll produce a series of A4 size proofs output from the printer, tweaking the colour settings until I’m happy with the result.
Another early decision was to use a website to show and sell the work, which seemed appropriate given the digital origins of the prints. Putting the work on a website also allows us to show the work how and when we want to - effectively running an online gallery.
I put the website together and we decided on a name - chooprint.com - chosen for it’s quirkiness. The website went online in early 2006.
The problem with the Designjet printer emerged a few months after we bought it, and was down to the type of ink used in the machine. What we didn’t realise to begin with is that there are two different types of ink used in inkjet printing - dye based inks and pigment inks. Dye based inks give a more brilliant colour but are less stable than pigment inks - the Designjet uses dye based ink.
There was a noticable fading in the prints after a month or two, and the tendency to do this seemed particularly strong in colours towards the reddish end of the spectrum. We made enquiries to see if the problem could be resolved by using a different paper type, which led to us doing our own lightfastness tests - mostly through exposing printed samples to direct sunlight and comparing the results. In the end we made a decision to swap the Designjet for a printer which used pigment inks.
Ultimately, we decided, prints output using dye based inks would not be considered true fine art giclee prints. We sold our original printer on ebay and bought an Epson 3800 large format printer, which is the printer we currently use.
posted by Ian Scaife at
12:48 AM
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