Tips and Tricks

The final reproduction is impacted by several factors, including: type of ink, the printer settings and the basic colour of the paper. In general monitors and printers mix colour in different ways. The monitor uses three primary colours (Red, Green, Blue – known as RGB). A monitor produces colour by lighting up the required colours to be mixed and then mixing them. Reprographic colour printing starts with a piece of white paper instead of the black screen of a cathode ray tube. The printer uses four colours (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, blacK – known as CMYK) that are mixed with each other as required during the printing process to produce individual colours. Because the coverage of the colour spectrum differs between the two, a colour profile is used to eliminate the differences. With some patience and repeated proofing it is possible to achieve similar good results with a desktop printer.

To reproduce accurate colour quality certain settings must be calibrated prior to printing. To achieve accurate colour quality over longer periods you cannot avoid using profiles as these ensure colour constancy.
For individual prints profiles are not particularly necessary. For a more detailed explanation of profiling consult the handling instructions on the ICC download page.

The ICC profile ensures that you achieve consistently accurate colour reproduction on your paper over a longer production period. This profile tells the printer which colours to mix in order to achieve a specific colour or to correspond to a specific surface. Please remember: every paper has a slightly different base tone so that for every type of paper you use you should select a different profile.

Our Hahnemühle FineArt inkjet papers are pure natural products, manufactured in an elaborate process from cellulose fibres and/or linters, which are then coated in a separate refinement process. Throughout the production process, we make sure that important parameters are met. For example - the paper's ‘moisture content'. As paper tends to achieve a balance with its environment, the paper's moisture content can change. Atmospheric condition changes, such as the dry air in heated rooms, damp air in unheated storage rooms or low temperatures can result in ‘curling' - the curving of the paper sheets. More often than not, a slight re-bending of the corners or the use of a ‘D-Roller' will easily solve the problem.

The grammage is not necessarily the deciding factor; paramount to this is the volume, i.e. the strength as well as the flexibility of the paper. On some printers the paper is fed into and out of the printer at the front, which requires the paper to be rotated 180° over a roller within a very small radius. This can mean that “normal” paper with a grammage of approx. 220 – 250 gsm cannot cope with this process. However, there are differences with paper type. Where Canvas with 340 gsm might print well, a Torchon paper with 285 gsm might not. The reason being that the Canvas is more flexible and Torchon is firmer. Experience will dictate which papers are suitable for a desktop printer. From experience we can recommend the following guide values - most papers up to a grammage of approx 250 gsm even White Etching, White Etching Satin and Canvas can be used in desktop printers.

Giclee comes from French and translated literally means “squirt”, which in this case refers to the process by which the ink is applied to the paper. The nozzles of an inkjet printer spray a pattern of very fine drops onto the paper that later form the picture. The term giclee connotes an artwork, a photograph or a digitally produced work reproduced on an inkjet printer. The image is generated onto coated, archival artist’s paper using pigmented inks (UV resistant).