Expand Vol. 3 No. 11

Great Expectations and the Perplexing Paradox of Fine Art Reproduction

Fine-art reproduction and decor printing represent a growth opportunity in a relatively static market. How to take advantage of it by meeting and exceeding the expectations of these finicky customers.

By Tom Hauenstein

Fine art and décor reproduction represent one of the fastest growing niches in our market. One of the most common problems associated with successfully tapping this market is making the artist happy with the reproductions you are able to create.

Artists expend a lot of time, effort, and talent creating an original piece of art, so it may be difficult to get them to accept a reproduction that doesn’t match their original exactly. There are two things that you can do to make the artist more accepting and grateful for your version of their work: Set their expectations and use materials with a large color gamut.

Setting Expectations

Setting expectations is the most important thing you can do for the artist or whoever commissions the reproduction. By doing this properly, they will accept a copy that is not an exact match of their original. More importantly, you will prevent them from taking their business elsewhere.

Many times an artist will create his or her original piece using a large amount of different colors. Since your printer only has 7-11 colors (depending on the make and model), you will not be able to re-create their print exactly.

A good idea to help explain this analogy to your customer is to buy 16-color and 64-color crayon boxes and show them side-by-side. Explain that they created the art with the 64-color box, but you only have the 16-color box available to reproduce it. This analogy usually hits home.

Now your customer should easily understand that your printer does not have an unlimited color gamut. The next step is to reassure them that no such printer exists. If you have a Canon or Epson printer that has been manufactured in the last two or three years, then you can tell your customer with confidence that there are no other printers out there that can do a better job than the one you currently own. This will keep your customer from looking to your competition.

In order for you to be able to make this promise, however, you must update your printer if the newer technology offers a significant increase in color gamut, so be sure to consult with a LexJet account specialist about finding the best printer for the application.

Selecting Material with a Large Color Gamut

The paradox of fine art printing is this… Materials with matte finishes are usually preferred when printing fine art reproductions. Typically, the artist will specify a matte canvas or matte watercolor paper.

Due to the coatings of these materials and the physics of light, they traditionally have a smaller color gamut than all other papers. Therefore, you’ll have artists who demand the largest color gamut possible requesting their work be reproduced on materials with the smallest color gamut.

The easiest way to increase your output color gamut is to change the material you are using to print. Luster and gloss materials have a larger color gamut because those surfaces are usually smoother than matte finish surfaces. This smoothness allows more light to bounce off of the print and directly back into the viewer’s eyes, creating richer colors, including blacks.

If your customer wants a print on canvas, then print it on a gloss canvas instead of a matte canvas. Your color gamut increases significantly with this simple switch (see Figure 1). If your customer absolutely has to have a matte finish canvas, then you can use a matte finish coating on the canvas, like those provided by ClearStar Corporation, which are available at LexJet.

If your customer wants a print on fine art paper, then print it on the new line of Sunset Fibre Papers. They offer an elegant, high-end finish that emulates the fibre prints coming out of the traditional darkroom, and have a gloss or satin finish.

Compared to a watercolor paper, their color gamut is significantly larger (see Figure 2). With a larger color gamut, your printer or RIP’s color engine will have to re-map fewer colors. That means the printer will be able to hit more of the artist’s original colors.

Your customer may not like the un-printed finish of the gloss canvas or fibre papers. However, they will most likely appreciate the fact that these materials produce a copy closer to their original art.

To be sure, print their image on matte and gloss canvas, or Sunset Fibre Elite and a fine art paper, and let them make the decision. I am sure they will pick the paper with the larger color gamut almost every time.

Also, try the relative colorimetric rendering intent when reproducing fine art, as it produces less color shift. For more information about rendering intents and their effect on the final print, click here.

Tom Hauenstein is LexJet’s technical director. Tom is currently on the road teaching the Great Output Seminar Tour, which picks up again in San Francisco on Jan. 19, 2009.The day-long seminar is designed to arm fine-art reproducers and photographers with the tools and information needed to build an efficient, profitable, and properly color-managed in-house printing workflow. For more information, contact a LexJet account specialist at 800-453-9538 or go to the Great Output Seminar website.