Frequently Asked Questions

The term giclée has come to be associated with other types of inkjet printing including processes that use fade-resistant, archival inks (pigment-based), and archival substrates primarily produced on Canon, Epson, HP and other large-format printers.[8] These printers use the CMYK color process but may have multiple cartridges for variations of each color based on the CcMmYK color model (such as light magenta and light cyan inks in addition to regular magenta and cyan); this increases the apparent resolution and color gamut and allows smoother gradient transitions.[9] A wide variety of substrates is available, including various textures and finishes such as matte photo

Color Spaces are used to characterize digital color. RGB and CMYK are both commonly used spaces for 2 different technologies in use. CMYK is a limited saturation space intended for offset printing. RGB is a wide gamut ( saturation) space for monitors and broadcast viewing.

We recommend using RGB for our wide gamut output devices however we can easily match any CMYK color.

That is a complex question as it depends on your monitor type, its settings and if it is properly calibrated.

Most serious artists will calibrate their monitor with a color sensing device for accurate color. Unfortunately this alone does not give accurate prints because most people choose a brightness setting that is too bright or edit in a room that is too dark.

A simple tip is to hold a sheet of white paper next to a white page on your screen. if the monitor white is much brighter than the paper white than your monitor is too bright for proper editing.  Either increase the ambient light level in your room or adjust the monitor brightness down.

We accept all image formats however the best prints come from non compressed files.  We prefer non compressed tiff files or even better is DNG when available.

If you are sending us a JPG file or file from your mobile device make sure it is the best quality attainable.

Many times you will recieve extras that may have had a slight defect for free .

We also give you any proofs that were generated during our proofing process at no charge.

Many clients use the proofs for sample books and portfolios.

Discounts only apply when the minimum ammounts for discount are met however there is no minimum quantity so clients can order exactly what they need to maintain low inventories and costs.

Digitizing artwork is a complex process that requires high precision, high resolution, the best lenses, high color rendering intent lights, even illumination and proper exposure.  If you are at all serious about quality reproduction we do not recommend doing it yourself.

If you are truly set on doing it yourself we recommend as a minimum using the Nikon D810 with a Zeiss 135mm lens or the Nikkor 200mm F2.0 lens  and searching out some online tutorials.

We create all of our own ICC profiles and drivers using dedicated standalone printing software. Our preferred rendering intent is Relatice Colorimetric and we proof our colors under high CRI (CRI 95) D5000 lights or CRI 100 D3300 halogen lights.

When clients send files with colors that are out of gamut we offer color matching services which includes hard copy proofing.

Yes , ICC profiles are available on individual pages for each media type where available.  

When prepping a file for output we recommend working in either Beta RGB or Adobe RGB. We do NOT recommend doing final output edits in ProPhoto as it will contain colors that are beyond human vision, your monitors capability and the print capability.

Better gamut mapping will be had from using the recommended color spaces.