I am teaching two printing workshops in 2024 with Maine Media Workshops, including one brand new one! In July I’m teaching my traditional printing course, The Craft and Art of the Fine Digital Print, and at the end of September/beginning of October, I’m teaching a brand new course called Mastering the Fine Digital Print. This new course is more advanced, covering many topics we do not have time to cover in the first workshop, and the first workshop (or equivalent experience) is thus required to take the advanced course. You can read more about the courses here.
New Printing Workshop Oct. 30 - Nov. 3, 2023
Last week we still had a waitlist for my sold-out printing workshop, so we decided to run another session of the workshop at Maine Media later this fall from October 30th-November 3rd. For more information and to register you can do so here.
Recycling Ink Cartridges
A long-time annoyance for me with inkjet printing is the environmental impact of using consumables such as ink cartridges. Ink cartridges are a complicated mix of computer chips, heavy metals, electronics, plastic, and other materials and generally cannot be recycled at traditional recycling facilities. It is estimated that less than half of ink cartridges are recycled, and over 375 million cartridges per year end up in landfills in the US alone.
One desirable solution to this issue would be to use reusable ink cartridges. Alas, here in the US, none of the manufacturers of printers provide such cartridges. Some third party ink providers do provide reusable cartridges, but many printers (including myself) prefer to use OEM inks provided by the manufacturer.
So, how to recycle these things? Retailers like Staples do recycle cartridges, even ones that they do not sell, but I really have no idea what happens to giant Epson P9000 cartridges like I use — I would not be surprised if unusual cartridges such as these end up in a landfill.
Luckily, the three big printer manufacturers provide a recycling program for ink cartridges. Epson recycles both printers and cartridges —and will pay for shipping for printers themselves, but not the cartridges. Canon has a great recycling system and provides free shipping labels for exhausted cartridges, as does HP.
Non-Profit and Environmental Discounts
I now offer a 40% discount on printing work for environmental non-profits and causes. I also offer a 20% discount on printing services for any non-profit organization or charitable cause. Please contact me with any questions or for more details!
There's a new printer in town...
My gaggle of large format printers (P9000 on the left, 2 9900's on the right)
Well, after four years of heavy use, my primary Epson 9900 printer seems to have given up with a head failure. I'm still working on trying to fix it, but the problem was sufficiently bad that I've added a new printer to the stable, the new Epson P9000.
Besides the roll holder cover at the top being black, it is pretty similar physically to its predecessor, and I've started testing now to see if Epson's claims about improved performance and reliability are evident. So far, so good. As for the two partially broken 9900's, I have not yet decided their fate -- they may go back into service as Piezography printers or they may retire gracefully.
Upcoming Printing Workshops with Maine Media
I now have two upcoming week-long printing workshops with Maine Media coming up, one on May 7-13 and the other August 20-26th. Both are my traditional workshop entitled "The Craft and the Art of the Fine Digital Print". Please contact me with any questions, and follow the link above to the Maine Media site to register.
Fine Art Inkjet Printing Book Available Now
My Printing Book!
Coming June 2017 from Rocky Nook.
Something keeping me very busy for the last few months has been my first book, entitled "Fine Art Inkjet Printing: The Craft and Art of the Fine Digital Print". It will be published in June 2017 by Rocky Nook. I'll have much more about this as we get closer...
Sample Packs
I recently added to my list of print services sample packs for paper - the description is below, and please contact me if you'd like a list of papers or if you have any questions.
I now offer sample prints using your choice of in-stock papers using your own image. Simply send me your image (please contact me for my dropbox link if so desired) and I'll print your image on your choice of any three of my papers for $40.00 (plus shipping and tax as necessary). This is a perfect way to find out what type of paper might work best for your image.
Paper Review - Canson Platine Fiber Rag
Overview
"Waterscape Blue/Red #5", Copyright Jim Nickelson. All Rights Reserved.
Paper choice is very subjective, but for me, Platine Fiber Rag (PFR) hits the sweet spot in so many ways, and it is my favorite of the luster/lustre-type papers. If you haven't yet tried it out, I certainly highly recommend doing so. There are other reviews of this paper out in the world - I'd recommend this one from the Luminous Landscape for more details and charts than this relatively short review and this one for details about printing B&W with this paper.
So, what is PFR? It is a fiber-based lustre paper with a 100% cotton rag paper base that uses no optical brightening agents (OBAs) to achieve its brightness. According to Canson (you can read the nitty gritty for yourself here), the paper base is from a cotton paper used for platinum printing with a suitable coating to receive inkjet inks applied on top of that base. It naturally has all the archival characteristics (e.g., acid-free, internally buffered, etc.) we have come to expect from modern, high-end inkjet papers. It is in the general class of lustre/luster papers that, on the Epson printers, use the Photo Black ink rather than the Matte Black ink and that also have a somewhat textured or stippled surface.
Okay, those are the basics, so what is like? PFR is one of my favorite papers when held in the hand. It is relatively thick (310 grams) and the cotton rag base gives it a 'fine art' feel. The stippled surface has a very nice look - it is just a little more stippled than competitors such as Ilford Gold Fiber Silk and Canson Infinity Baryta Photographique, and for much of my work I find the extra stippling to add a bit of pleasing sparkle to the final print.
One excellent characteristic of PFR is that, when printing off of rolls, it dries relatively flat and does not need additional flattening. There are some lovely papers with more curl than this one, and the last step of trying to flatten takes up valuable time and also introduces an opportunity for the print to be damaged so flat drying is a distinct advantage.
What about color and image quality? Wonderful. There are papers with more range in what they can show (such as its cousin Baryta Photographique), but it has enough range for almost any task. Perhaps the slightly less color range allows the paper to print with a bit more subtlety, but I've been happier with prints on this paper than anything else.
The paper is pretty neutral overall but I believe that the highlights are slightly warm. Certainly compared to papers such as Epson Exhibition Fiber with brighteners PFR will feel on the warm side, but its overall neutrality is one of its strengths. For many artists, the slight warmth in the highlights is a feature, not a bug -- for my own work that little bit of warmth adds to the overall experience of the paper.
Conclusion
One of the best papers for digital printing. My own subjective feeling is that this paper is the best overall current option for the lustre papers. It is 100% cotton, no OBAs, just a touch warm, great feel in the hand, easy to work with on rolls, has a very nice stippled surface, and great image quality. I definitely recommend trying it out to see if it is suitable for your own work and aesthetic.
Pigment or Inkjet Prints versus Digital C-Prints
"Hope Elephants #5", Copyright Jim Nickelson. All Rights Reserved.
Inkjet prints are, at the highest level, simply prints made from a digital file by applying very fine droplets of ink on paper. Many inkjet inks are dye-based, but I strongly recommend using pigment-based inks for any fine art purposes because of their improved longevity. The professional photographic printers such as those from Epson & Canon all use pigment technology and the results are often called (archival) pigment prints.
Digital C-prints, on the other hand, are the result of printing a digital file on a continuous tone printer that uses silver-based paper. The photograph is created by exposing the paper with light sources (such as lasers or LEDs) and then processing the exposed paper with traditional chemistry. The most common papers are type-C papers (usually Fuji Crystal Archive, which is the best) processed in RA-4 chemistry. The continuous tone printers include the Lightjet, Durst Lambda, and the Chromira, and labs that make these types of prints will usually advertise that they use one of those three brands.
Ok, so those are the types of digital prints – which one should you use? I myself have chosen pigment prints after a time having digital C-prints made, and pigment prints made from an inkjet printer are what I recommend to most photographers and other artists. I’ll outline below what I see as the advantages and disadvantages of both.
1. Do you want to do your own printing? Well, if the answer is yes and you aren’t fabulously wealthy, the choice is actually pretty simple – pigment prints. While inkjet printing at home isn’t free, you can get a nice set-up for well under $500. Those continuous tone printers typically run for more than $100,000 and are thus usually only found in professional labs. Advantage pigment prints.
2. Longevity. Digital C-prints printed on Fuji Crystal Archive (FCA) are rated at an estimated longevity of 60 years, surpassing traditional color methods. Pigment prints using the most recent formulations from Epson, HP, & Canon are often rated at over 100 years, depending on the particular paper chosen. Advantage pigment prints.
3. Paper choice. FCA papers include Matte, Pearl, Glossy, and Super Glossy (and perhaps a few others), while inkjet papers suitable for fine art printing number in the hundreds with wide varieties of paper color, texture, thickness, feel, and the like. I personally find the choice of papers for pigment paper to be liberating and love the choice to find a paper perfect for each body of work and artist. That being said, if your tastes run to the super glossy, I feel the FCA papers to be slightly superior – no gloss differential and a smoother, more mirror-like surface. Advantage pigment prints, unless you really like super glossy.
4. Marketing. Many people who print or sell the digital C-prints on FCA market them as “real” photograph prints on real photographic paper. I think there probably is still some slight marketing advantage to a chemical-based print because of the bad connotations the word inkjet had early on in digital printing, but that advantage has diminished as technology and education have improved. Advantage (very slightly) to digital C-prints.
5. Image quality. From my experience and from the technical specs, modern pigment prints can provide more color gamut (range of colors), more dynamic range, and additional sharpness. To my eye, the print quality on the most recent Epson (9900 series) is clearly superior to that of a digital C-print. Advantage pigment prints.
6. Size. There are some continuous tone printers that go up to 72″ wide, surpassing the maximum inkjet width of 60″ (based on my knowledge). (Note – there may be larger versions of each with which I’m not familiar). So if five feet wide just isn’t big enough for you and you need six feet wide, you know what you need to do. Advantage digital C-prints.
For me personally, I wanted the highest image quality combined with the ability to make my own prints, making pigments prints the clear choice. If you really want a super glossy look, need the largest possible print size, or just prefer to have prints made with chemicals, you may come down differently. I recommend uploading a file to a place like West Coast imaging and ordering a print done each way if you want to see for yourself — once you get beyond the absolutes mentioned above, print preference is certainly subjective.