@stormbytes, Again, I'm not claiming to be an expert. I'll try to answer your question. Compared to the hardware my printer uses, my Epson printer is working with fewer colors, fewer (and poorer quality) nozzles, and out-of-the-box dye-based ink technology. Of course it also can't print on the substrate on which most of my giclees are printed. Also, print-making is an art. It's not that I may not be able to learn that art, but I prefer to spend my time painting and not keeping up w/ technology.
@KarenTalbotArt Wow.. I'm sorry I guess I totally missed that! You paint?! Now that makes a LOT more sense! I thought you were a photographer! My bad... I should tell you I find your subject matter (fish) to be rather unique and the way you present these, quite appealing - visually. Nevermind what I said about doing in-house prints. As for the color quality & number of inks, I have an Epson 3800 so I take 9 inks for granted! I stand corrected :)
@stormbytes, I'm not trying to argue my Epson 835 is better than it is--lol. It is my printer for office work. That was the point of mentioning it in the video. In my experience, many artists with whom I do shows print their own giclees. Most of these artists are doing true giclee printing in terms of hardware, inks and substrate. That being said, I see a fair number of artists who are selling a self-printed product they call a giclee, which is not, in my opinion, a true giclee print.
@KarenTalbotArt In your video you seem to include print-resolution as being one aspect of "Giclee" printing (the other two being acid-free archival substrate and archival pigment-inks). With print resolution not being a factor (you can't even max out your 835's dpi-potential on uncoated cotton substrates!) and seeing that any K2/K3 inks qualify as "pigments", why is the Giclee you print on the 835 any less "authentic" then those you order from an outside printing company?
As for Giclees, everyone outsources that :) Mostly because there's more involved then just making the prints (mounting, finishing, etc) and depending on your print size, you'd have to output quite a few to cover your basic setup costs were you to print in-house. The actual print resolution on cotton/rag-anything is probably closer to 720dpi, despite what the printer may be mechanically "capable" of doing.
I've got a 3800 Pro which I use for high-quality QTR black and whites, as well as printing digital negatives for contact printing (alt-process). For the latter, I use high-gloss Pictorico white-film - A surface you'd practically never use for anything other then transparencies. Even so, the only time I'd go over 1440dpi is when I need the UV blocking properties of the pigment. For display, its virtually impossible to tell 1400 from 2880 dpi, and generally a pointless waste of ink!
The 2880 DPI is a marketing gimmick. The Epsons are capable of that, but you'll generally get better results out of using the 1440 dpi setting. The difference is that at the 1440 dpi setting, the printer uses variable size dots as it sees fit. At 2880 dpi it uses fixed size dots, but there are times the 1440 with variable sized drops of ink gives better, more even coverage.
Epson can "fudge" the number of horizontal (in-line) dots-per-inch. The 5760 (horizontal) output is actually a fudged 2880, which is what the print head can output. You can't fudge the vertical lines, which is where the 1440 (vertical-lines-per-inch) comes from. In reality, anyone telling you they are printing at anything close to that resolution on anything but super-high-gloss paper is outright lying to you. Feel free to test it out for yourself. The ink will bleed right off the page!
We print at 1440 dpi on cotton rag. We can see the difference between that and 720 dpi printing. So in fact we do print at 1440 dpi, on rag papers. The ink does not bleed off the page.
Thanks for the comment, @stormbytes! This is, in part, why I choose (for my client's sake) to outsource my giclee printing to technicians who do it for a living. Regarding the resolution of the Epson Artisan 835 I have in the studio, I was citing the specs provided by Epson: "maximum print resolution of 5760 x 1440 dpi." I would have been more accurate if I had said "The vertical print resolution is 5,760 dpi and the horizontal print resolution is 1440 dpi," right?
Another thought... have you ever considered adding traditional "originals" to your artwork variety? There are some alt-processes that could lend themselves very well to the type of images you produce. Just thinking out loud here..
Very informative video and well done! However, I can assure you that the little Epson you have sitting on the desk most-certainly-does-not produce 5000 dpi (as you stated in the video) or anything remotely close to that! In fact, Epson has never manufactured a single printer that goes over 2880dpi to my knowledge... Also, resolution is dots-per-inch (linear) and not dots-per-square-inch! :)
@stormbytes, Again, I'm not claiming to be an expert. I'll try to answer your question. Compared to the hardware my printer uses, my Epson printer is working with fewer colors, fewer (and poorer quality) nozzles, and out-of-the-box dye-based ink technology. Of course it also can't print on the substrate on which most of my giclees are printed. Also, print-making is an art. It's not that I may not be able to learn that art, but I prefer to spend my time painting and not keeping up w/ technology.
KarenTalbotArt 1 month ago
@KarenTalbotArt Wow.. I'm sorry I guess I totally missed that! You paint?! Now that makes a LOT more sense! I thought you were a photographer! My bad... I should tell you I find your subject matter (fish) to be rather unique and the way you present these, quite appealing - visually. Nevermind what I said about doing in-house prints. As for the color quality & number of inks, I have an Epson 3800 so I take 9 inks for granted! I stand corrected :)
stormbytes 1 month ago
@stormbytes, I'm not trying to argue my Epson 835 is better than it is--lol. It is my printer for office work. That was the point of mentioning it in the video. In my experience, many artists with whom I do shows print their own giclees. Most of these artists are doing true giclee printing in terms of hardware, inks and substrate. That being said, I see a fair number of artists who are selling a self-printed product they call a giclee, which is not, in my opinion, a true giclee print.
KarenTalbotArt 1 month ago
@KarenTalbotArt In your video you seem to include print-resolution as being one aspect of "Giclee" printing (the other two being acid-free archival substrate and archival pigment-inks). With print resolution not being a factor (you can't even max out your 835's dpi-potential on uncoated cotton substrates!) and seeing that any K2/K3 inks qualify as "pigments", why is the Giclee you print on the 835 any less "authentic" then those you order from an outside printing company?
stormbytes 1 month ago
*correction: I just double-checked, I may have gotten the math on vertical/horizontal dpi output backwards! Whichever way...
stormbytes 1 month ago
As for Giclees, everyone outsources that :) Mostly because there's more involved then just making the prints (mounting, finishing, etc) and depending on your print size, you'd have to output quite a few to cover your basic setup costs were you to print in-house. The actual print resolution on cotton/rag-anything is probably closer to 720dpi, despite what the printer may be mechanically "capable" of doing.
stormbytes 1 month ago
I've got a 3800 Pro which I use for high-quality QTR black and whites, as well as printing digital negatives for contact printing (alt-process). For the latter, I use high-gloss Pictorico white-film - A surface you'd practically never use for anything other then transparencies. Even so, the only time I'd go over 1440dpi is when I need the UV blocking properties of the pigment. For display, its virtually impossible to tell 1400 from 2880 dpi, and generally a pointless waste of ink!
stormbytes 1 month ago
The 2880 DPI is a marketing gimmick. The Epsons are capable of that, but you'll generally get better results out of using the 1440 dpi setting. The difference is that at the 1440 dpi setting, the printer uses variable size dots as it sees fit. At 2880 dpi it uses fixed size dots, but there are times the 1440 with variable sized drops of ink gives better, more even coverage.
bellevuefineart 2 weeks ago
Epson can "fudge" the number of horizontal (in-line) dots-per-inch. The 5760 (horizontal) output is actually a fudged 2880, which is what the print head can output. You can't fudge the vertical lines, which is where the 1440 (vertical-lines-per-inch) comes from. In reality, anyone telling you they are printing at anything close to that resolution on anything but super-high-gloss paper is outright lying to you. Feel free to test it out for yourself. The ink will bleed right off the page!
stormbytes 1 month ago
We print at 1440 dpi on cotton rag. We can see the difference between that and 720 dpi printing. So in fact we do print at 1440 dpi, on rag papers. The ink does not bleed off the page.
bellevuefineart 2 weeks ago
@Shatteredmind, For my reproductions, I use digital files at a minimum of 300 dpi.
KarenTalbotArt 1 month ago
@Strombytes, I'm unclear on what you mean by "traditional originals." Would you please clarify for me? I'm intrigued! :-)
KarenTalbotArt 1 month ago
Thanks for the comment, @stormbytes! This is, in part, why I choose (for my client's sake) to outsource my giclee printing to technicians who do it for a living. Regarding the resolution of the Epson Artisan 835 I have in the studio, I was citing the specs provided by Epson: "maximum print resolution of 5760 x 1440 dpi." I would have been more accurate if I had said "The vertical print resolution is 5,760 dpi and the horizontal print resolution is 1440 dpi," right?
KarenTalbotArt 1 month ago
Another thought... have you ever considered adding traditional "originals" to your artwork variety? There are some alt-processes that could lend themselves very well to the type of images you produce. Just thinking out loud here..
stormbytes 1 month ago
Very informative video and well done! However, I can assure you that the little Epson you have sitting on the desk most-certainly-does-not produce 5000 dpi (as you stated in the video) or anything remotely close to that! In fact, Epson has never manufactured a single printer that goes over 2880dpi to my knowledge... Also, resolution is dots-per-inch (linear) and not dots-per-square-inch! :)
stormbytes 1 month ago
Great, thanks a lot Karen! You should paint your smile, it's beautiful ;-)
nufcmikkel 4 months ago
Great video!! thank you. Would 300 dpi resolution for digital art be efficient for eventual Giclee Printing?
shatteredmind 4 months ago