Introduction
to a Digiograph Studio.
Digital
fine art printing can be done in your home, studio, or office.
Just be sure you do basic research on inkjet printers, scanners,
and accessories before you buy. It is very easy to spend lots
of money yet not really end up with a printer that is appropriate
for your personal needs.
To
be safe, stick with mainstream equipment. If a printer is
displayed publicly at the major international trade shows
(and hence open to public scrutiny) you can at least trust
that the company is good enough that they feel their equipment
will hold up to public inspection.
FLAAR
does list unusual and innovative printing systems, but is
unable to recommend any of these until we get adequate feedback
from our own evaluation studios or at least from actual end
users who have tested the equipment independently of the manufacturer
or reseller.
Several
people have written us asking how they can reproduce fine
art prints from a CD. If someone offers you a CD full of old
master paintings and says you can reproduce them as fine art
prints, ponder the following reality:
You
need anywhere from 40 to 200 MB or more to actually print
a single image. A Kodak CD can hold only 650 MB. This means
a CD can hold only about 18 individual images. So if you are
offered a CD with "thousands of images" that means
each individual image is too small (two few pixels; dpi is
too low).
Scanning
the original image at a high enough dpi is a key part of
fine
art giclee printing. More information on fine art scanning
is contained in the FLAAR report based on a quarter of millions
of dollars in feasibility studies conducted by the FLAAR
Photo
Archive between 1996 and today . This report
lists what scanning systems are the most appropriate for
subsequently
reproducing fine art giclee prints.
If
you attempt to do this with a cheap scanner, the resulting
images may be so inadequate that no one will buy them. Besides,
virtually all famous images are copyright and you can't simply
print and sell them from a CD.
Occasionally
we get inquiries asking about the Digitograph Studio. This
is a difficult system to review. First, it is interesting
that nowhere is there any picture or specs of an actual printer,
scanner, or the software that is offered for sale. There is
no such thing as a digitiographic subligraphic printer of
course. The terms subligraph, Digitograph are completely made-up
words because that is the only way they can become a trademark
(as is of course the word "giclee," giclee is a
pseudo French word that means "squirted ink.").
There are only about four fine art inkjet printing technologies
currently available. All are based on either Epson piezo printheads,
HP thermal printheads, the Iris Herz system or the more unusual
wire-jet system. This means that any printer which can actually
print a fine art image is one of these four printer technologies
under the hood, however re-labeled it may be. OEMed under
a private label is a perfectly acceptable practice but we
feel people deserve to know what printheads are involved.
In car manufacturing it is required by Federal law to reveal
who actually manufactured the engine, for example.
We
look forward to reviewing the capabilities of the Digitograf
system as soon as we can establish precisely what printers,
what scanners, what inks, and what practices are incorporated.
So far none of the people who have e-mailed us actually had
one. As far as I can tell none had seen one either. We noticed
that one of the offers on their web site stated very honestly
and ethically that one of their investment levels was "not
available in US"
Every
system, no matter how unique, has some favorable aspect. Thus
surely the Digitograf can accomplish something quite nicely.
The purpose of a review is to ascertain what is the actual
production basis. Is this something a first-time user can
handle? Is this plug-and-play or does it require color management
tools? Who is available to repair and service the system if
it breaks down, wears out, or simply does not function as
you anticipated from the advertisements? Professional fine
art printers may prefer to use only equipment that has a 4
hour response time (that means you need a service technician
within 4 hours from your location).
You
can buy a traditional name-brand printer to do either dye
sublimation or fine art printing on canvas starting at $9,000
(just ask for the FLAAR reports listed in the table below).
Don't get talked into spending more than you need to. Sublimation
just means the ink is heated, turns into a gas, and in this
gaseous state goes deep into the fibers or pores of the material
on which you sublimate (you use a heat press for this; they
are very expensive at any size over 24 inches).
Most
importantly of all, before you buy any system, be sure to
find several people who already have the same printer. Try
to do this totally independently of the manufacturer. The
best place to learn about these printers is to go to a trade
show (or at least subscribe to the trade show reports issued
by FLAAR). We list each and every printer that is at the major
international trade shows. If a printer can really do fine
art giclee prints, then it will be exhibited at a trade show
so that the public can inspect it in detail.
Never
buy any printer, scanner, software, or "system"
that is dependent on one lone individual or one sole company
for support. This is why ColorSpan, Roland, Epson, Hewlett-Packard,
Mutoh and other printers are the safest investment. You
can buy from nationally known dealers. If you don't like
one dealer you can easily switch to another.
For
additional information and for help making your decision,
to get the "FLAAR report fine art giclee printers,"
"FLAAR Report on which printers are best for printing
exhibit-quality photographs on canvas," or for the
FLAAR report on "Piezo vs Thermal printheads, fact
vs fiction, pros and cons of each kind of inkjet printhead."
You can also ask for the report on "Media and Inks
for Photo-Realistic and Fine Art Giclee." visit our
website www.wide-format-pritners.net
If
this will be your first printer, then we have a special
report that holds your hand and leads you through all the
basic questions that will assist a first-time buyer of a
large format printer. Purchase
the FLAAR report on "RIP + Help." This explains
what RIP software is, why this is useful, and includes tips,
warnings, information, and help for a wide range of matters
for a newbie. Here you will really appreciate that FLAAR
is based at a university; Professor Hellmuth has plenty
of experience writing in a manner that explains what you
need, and why.
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| All
reports by Dr. Nicholas Hellmuth |
UPDATED:
August 02/2001
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