File Preparation for Giclee Printing

We have seen a steady increase in demand from digital artists. Digital art printing on canvas and watercolor papers is virtually no different compared to fine art reproduction of originals.

However there are a few issues that need to be discussed. Digital artists often "push" colors to the edge of the gamut. It is easy to do so when the palette is as wide as pure RGB. Some artists create impossible colors to render, such as blues in the 0, 0, 220+ range.

Although these color look great on screen, they have to be translated to inks on paper for digital art printing. RGB represents the full theoretical range of light and there is no method of reproduction that can possibly duplicate such bright and saturated colors.

Reds, yellows and greens are not as much an issue compared to blues. This has to do with the chemical nature of the pigments. For digital art printing, the consequence is a shift to the magenta when extremely saturated blues are present.

Choosing printable colors

When creating digital art, pay attention at the colors used. Preview the image on screen to see where the gamut warnings appear. If you use Photoshop, there are many tools available to look at problems. There is an out of gamut warning, a color space preview and also the old tried and true RGB to CMYK conversion (just make sure you undo the conversion after previewing). The CMYK conversion is an extreme way to see what could happen when printing. We say so because our giclee printers have a much wider range compared to CMYK. This said, it still is a helpful way to see color bending and artifacts. The described procedures will allow for a much smoother transition to correct digital art printing. This process is no different to what pre-press professionals have been doing for decades; that is, create files for the final purpose, not the instant feedback on the monitor.

The cardinal rule of digital imaging is looking at all the phases of the process, from beginning to end. The end product is as important as everything else.

Digital art printing can render incredibly saturated and beautiful artwork as long as files are prepared properly. If you already have art that was created with "out of gamut colors", we can adjust the range. Generally speaking, it is always best to avoid problems by providing us with a printable file.

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