The fine art printing brings the colour vibrancy, reproduction of colours, sharpness/details/contrast and subtle variations of the tones which could not be achieved in the traditional methods like offset/ screen/laser print technologiesbringing this quick note.
Fine art Archival Printing or simply Fine art printing is a process of printing digital photograph or photographs converted digitally by reproducing individually with a high quality inkjet printer using the acid-free paper.
The fine art printing brings the color vibrancy, reproduction of colors, sharpness/details/contrast and subtle variations of the tones which could not be achieved in the traditional methods like offset/ screen/laser print technologies
Fine Art Printing is also closely associated with "Archival" property which refers the longevity of the print.
The term "archival" refers to the paper manufacturing process which is acid-free. It is the presence of acid content in the paper(measured in pH values) that brings the whiteness of the paper and also the colour-fading, yellow formation, brittleness due to ageing.
The archival papers which are acid-free, made using cotton fibre or cellulose which doesn't turn yellow or lose colours or brittle over the years. Typically the archival papers can retain the colours for 300 to 400 years, if not exposed to direct sunlight or extreme moisture environment.
Apart from paper, another factor which determines the longevity of the print is the ink used for the printing. The Ultrachrome pigment ink used in our printing process known as pigment based ink have a longer lifespan of colour retaining capacity(100-200 years)along with the wide gamut of colour reproduction.
However, the fine art printing doesn't end with archival or longevity factors. The word "Fine Art Archival Print" is more an art than the technology.
A fine art print not only bring rich colour reproduction/vibrancy or longevity, due to availability of different choice of papers, a print creates the mood/feel/textures/tonal variations which cannot be re-produced using the electronic medium.
In the future blogs, we will discuss the topics like choice of the papers, their significance in creating the subtleties for a print, technicalities behind colour gamuts and so on.