Your Work Deserves More than a “Good Enough” Sheet
Artists can spend weeks perfecting a painting, while a photographer might wait months for the perfect shot. It seems crazy, but a lot of creative people overlook the impact of their choice of paper for art prints at the very last moment.
It’s one small thing, but it can have huge consequences.
Buyers in the current online market for art are much more aware of what constitutes “quality.” When they search for archival prints, museum-quality materials, and giclee prints, search interest rises with the number of artists who move to direct-to-consumer sales models. At the same time, there are a lot of articles focusing too much on the technicalities of printing without much attention paid to what people actually see and feel in a print: the giclee paper.
It’s as simple as this: A wonderful piece of art will lose value if printed on the wrong paper before it reaches the consumer.
What Exactly Is a Giclee Print and Why Is It a Professional’s Favorite?
Giclee prints are fine art reproductions that can be produced from a digital file. A standard poster printer just puts ink onto a cheaper sheet, but giclee prints employ the use of specialized pigment inks, also called archival inks. This makes it possible to achieve prints on superior, quality paper to last for generations with true fidelity.
As a result, artists and photographers can produce prints which will never appear to lose their tonal range, color depth, or resolution over a span of many decades.
This is why more and more professional artists will order their reproductions from professional giclee printing services when selling them online, exhibiting them, or when dealing with individual collector orders.
Why Is Your Giclee Paper Important?
So much emphasis is put on resolution, color profiles, and printer specs. While these details are vital, it’s the paper that ultimately delivers emotional impact to the print.
Your choice of paper for art prints affects:
- The vibrancy of color
- Its surface feel
- The density of the shadows and blacks
- Its perceived value
- Its archival longevity
The paper is essentially the stage that your artwork is performed on; a terrible performance will seem poor on the wrong stage.
In addition, people seeking fine art images or reproductions for their homes or offices usually associate higher weight paper and texture with truly valuable art. This can have a significant impact on how potential buyers view both the artwork and the artist themselves.
Which Giclee Paper is Right for Your Artwork?
No one is in a position to know this without considering the particular artwork.
Should You Use a Matte Fine Art Paper?
For many, yes. Matte fine art papers will be a very safe choice since they provide great definition of the artwork without being distractingly reflective. The most appropriate use for this kind of giclee paper is for illustrations, digital paintings, graphite, and art that uses a subtle tone, such as gradients.
Archival matte papers remain some of the best-known papers in the industry, and they will ensure you can reproduce color and image detail with museum quality. FinerWorks, for example, stocks a huge variety of archival matte papers specifically for reproductions and photography alike.
What is the Effect of Textured Cotton Papers?
Very much indeed. Many museum-quality reproduction prints are printed on 100% cotton rags since these papers closely resemble traditional watercolor painting and other fine art paper surfaces.
You’ll find this most often in textured watercolor-style paper, velvet paper, or general cotton rag media. This gives the print depth, character, and adds that tactile quality that buyers so love to feel! Hahnemühle Photo Rag and Canson Arches Aquarelle Rag papers are top choices with many professional artists and photographers for this reason.
Should Photographers Stick to Glossy Paper?
Sometimes. Some photographers who make very saturated photos—such as those made with bright colors, car pictures, landscapes, or commercial imagery—will use gloss or semi-gloss surfaces.
However, many fine art photographers will no longer utilize gloss or semi-gloss papers and are looking at matte and cotton rag papers to avoid glares during viewing, as the presentation is much more “artistic” overall. Online discussions of this topic with other artists often show that it depends on how close an artist wants their print to match the original image!
Why Are So Many Artists Beginning to Utilize Giclee Print on Demand?
Storage takes up space. It costs money. Unsold prints tie up capital and the physical space required to house them.
This is the reason why giclee print on demand is one of the fastest-growing fulfillment models used by artists today.
This means you have no inventory management and that you can invest at a low cost, produce your own fine art prints from a professional facility, get them delivered globally, and also experiment with images before launching a print run.
So many artists will produce prints on demand, from the individual piece to batch printing, to expand. Giclee printing services that offer their customers many paper types and selections will enable a person to adjust depending on where they are in the journey with their art prints. Artists often talk of the huge choice of papers in the print service they use as a deciding factor!
How Should an Artist Choose the Correct Paper for Their Customers?
Think not just about yourself when choosing your giclee paper.
Consider these factors:
- Does the artwork itself have depth?
- Are you proud of your vivid and bold colors?
- Will the buyers be viewing them in a framed situation behind glass?
- Who is the audience you are appealing to—serious art buyers, or a general audience?
- Is it important that the print should mimic the medium that the artist utilized to create it?
Many successful artists will order packs of paper to discover their perfect choice of media for their prints. If you view an image printed on many different papers, it is then possible to pick out differences between them which a computer screen will not display to you. Professional print providers and experienced artists agree that sample packs are of great benefit.
FAQ:
What is the most favored type of paper for a giclee print?
This will differ from one piece of artwork to another. Fine art cotton rags are well known for use in reproductions of art that are going to be put in museums, while the matte type of paper for art prints is usually well-suited for a variety of different images and illustrations.
Will giclee prints be more valuable than standard posters?
Yes, in almost every instance. Giclee prints are printed on archival papers that are far better and stronger than regular poster paper, but the inks and paper must go together perfectly.
How many years can a giclee print be expected to last?
If you get it done with the right pigment inks and printed on decent quality giclee paper, it should be a print which could last for 50 years or more and be viewed regularly.
Should photographers try to use textured paper?
Some artists do like to use it to mimic the traditional painting feel of a watercolor or oil painting in some reproductions, but others prefer the clarity provided by matte or silk paper.
Conclusion:
Your decision of which is the best giclee paper is just as important as how many dots there are per inch.
By selecting the proper paper for art prints, you’ll be able to not only complement the artwork you’ve produced but additionally present a level of quality and a feeling to the purchaser that they will cherish and remember for many years to come. Whether you select to use archival matte paper, 100% cotton rag papers, or a custom textured watercolor surface, you are able to offer the best reproductions online and through your giclee print on demand partner. In today’s increasingly aggressive online market, details make all the difference.