difference in prints?

[megan_stone]

<p>i recently went to an art fair that showed various photographic prints, with various descriptions.</p>

<p>can someone clarify what those print procedures are:</p>

<p>1) archival giclee print<br>

2) pigment print<br>

3) chromogenic print</p>

<p>thank you</p>

[SCL]

<p>giclee merely means ink jet</p>

[lornesunley]

<p>Pigment means ink jet<br>

chromogenic means a photographic process print like RA-4</p>

[david_henderson]

<p>A chromogenic print is made on a type C photographic paper. It can be made via traditional techniques (enlarger) or via the range of digital printers that also utilise similar papers such as Lambda, a Lightjet or a Chromira, and indeed some minilabs. The use of the term Chromogenic does not tell you anything about whether the photograph started off life as a film or a digital image, or indeed whether ir started off as the first and became the second via a scan. </p>

<p>An archival giclee print and a pigment print are materially the same thing and are made on inkjet printers. Again bear in mind that the origin could be film/scan or as a digital photograph . Some people may be convinced that the term giclee - virtually unused outside the fine art/gallery scene and tending to be regarded as a pretentious term in some circles- is in some way different and superior to regular inkjet prints. That may have been the case 15 years ago when Giclees were made on specialist machines made by people like Iris and Roland. Improvements in inkjet printers and inks have IMO at least rendered that sort of differentiation pretty much irrelevent, and todays inkjet machines, inks and papers are at least equally deserving of the term "archival" ( whatever that means, precisely) and acceptability as fine prints. </p>

[dave_redmann]

<p>All of the above is essentially correct. Just remember that not all inkjet prints are what most people would regard as archival. The lower-end consumer inkjets use dye-based inks, which may or may not last as well as even RA-4 prints. The upper-end photo inkjets (e.g., Epson 2400, 2880, 3800, some but not all Canons, at least some HP's, etc.) use pigment-based inks, which are more archival / stable. Note also that archival does not mean not fragile. With some injets, the prints will probably last a lot longer than you will <em>if</em> they're treated carefully, but let a drop of your spit him them and you can cause real damage.</p>

<p>Personally I tend to think that, unless you are a museum or are going to display a print where is gets a lot of direct sunlight, a lot of the concerns over archival properties are overblown. But that's just my personal opinion.</p>

 

[digitaldog]

<p>1) archival giclee print: (A BS marketing term, best to run away from those using this term). <br />2) pigment print: (an Ink jet using pigmented inks, such as Epson, Canon etc. Not all such printers use pigmented inks, some use dye based inks)<br />3) chromogenic print: (a process where a silver based paper is exposed and processed in conventional process like RA4, Ciba etc). </p>

[megan_stone]

<p>thank you rodney :)</p>

<p>but just so that im aware - galleries using the term Giclee ... this just means an archival injekt print? correct?</p>

[digitaldog]

<p>Its a silly term for ink jet yes. <br>

Forgive me, I’m biased thanks to my friend and partner Mac Holbert who with Graham Nash started the fine art ink jet business way back in 1989 using a bastardize Iris ink jet. An employee later started a similar business and came up with the marketing buzz word <em>giclee</em> (which in French could be said to translate into “<em>squirt</em>” but most who understand the language well say it means “<em>Ejaculate</em>”). Always rubbed Mac and Graham the wrong way so it rubs me the same way. See: http://digitaljournalist.org/issue0105/nash_intro.htm</p>