EPSON printmaking has steadily improved over the years to the point that its pigment inks are now rated for 100 years longevity. EPSON still uses trace dye in some of its color components and we use a ConeColor ink set which is pure pigment to gain an edge on longevity. The surface quality of the EPSON print is "flatter" than IRIS process. However, the process is less expensive when used for color.

Benefits
EPSON printers are cheap and plentiful in comparison to the rare IRIS printers which we maintain at great expense. As a result we are able to produce prints at a lower cost for our clients. Additionally, EPSON inks are made from pigments which are waterproof in comparison to IRIS dye based inks. Because the EPSON requires the use of pre-coated papers, the color gamut is larger than that of the IRIS process and often able to hit more difficult to reproduce colors. Finally, the durability of the EPSON pigment inks makes them more suitable for extremely harsh exhibition environments (although we never recommend hanging art in harsh light!)

• Can print lower resolution files.
• Coated papers are more suitable for edition on demand.

Fade-resistance
EPSON K3 inks are mostly pigment based inks with some trace dye, and we have shifted to ConeColor inks which are pure 100% pigment inks to increase our longevtiy even more. The EPSON process is waterproof but still prone to scuffs and scratching as is the IRIS process. All works of art on paper should be treated carefully which is why we always topsheet our prints with a protective paper. Our only caution to our customers is to keep EPSON prints away from atmospheric pollution and outgassing which is known to yellow or stain the pre-coated inkjet papers. Recently we shifted away from Hahnemuhle papers to Innova papers after repeated failures with the Hahnemuhle inkjet coating. Unfortunately, only the IRIS process can print on uncoated fine art papers.

How it works
The EPSON process starts with either drum scans of your original film or from your digital camera files. For fine art reproduction, we either scan 4x5 transparencies or your original art on either our drum scanner or our TTI large format direct scanner. We will produce proofs for you to okay or further color correct. For editions we must produce a signed BAT that we keep on file in order to re-match color.

Pricing
For pricing click here.