Framing and Matting Oversize Art Prints

I am in the process of framing a couple of oversize Art Prints; they are 30"x40" printed on semimatte paper, have a 2" wide mat, non-glare/matte acrylic glazing, and a 2" wide black flat face wood frame.

One of the images is a black and white sepia toned horizontal photo of 4 row boats in line docked at a lake; image #0015-0502-1515-3229 can be viewed/ordered at Acclaim Images; the image description is as follows: Fishing Boats; Scenic Still Life, Black and White Fine Art - Pictures, Photos, Photography

The second image is a photograph of a dock on a foggy still lake, also available at Acclaim Images; the image number is 0400-0703-0916-2446. The description of this image is as follows: Stock Image of a Moored Sailboat and Dock in the Fog on the Chesapeake Bay, Maryland.

These poster size photos print out nicely and are suitable for decorating a large wall space - these particular posters/art prints have been ordered by an architect design firm for decor in a restaurant.

I order the frame mouldings chopped (they cut to the size I order plus 1/8" and the corners are mitered) and I join them on a v nailer/underpinner. This machine is perfect for small frame shops like Allreds Photo; it's made by Inmes, the price is reasonable (we paid $525.00 new), it does not require compressed air or electricity. It's called an underpinner because the frame is placed face up (so the operator can see the joint) and it's vnailed from the underside. It's operated by a foot pedal - very simple and easy to use. I've had it for about 2 or 3 years and have not had a single problem other than operator error.

When framing these oversize art prints, I have to order oversize (oversize is anything over 32"x40"; I order 40"x60") foamcore, mat board and I order the acrylic pre cut. It's expensive to have these huge items shipped - if possible, I find a local supplier and pick them up myself. The closest suppliers are 2 1/2 hours away in Sacramento.

Website Maintenance

Last night I got the Sales tax function added on my website - it's 7.25% in California with no additional tax for this area (Shasta County). I also updated shipping to offer free delivery throughout the local area.

Water Resistant Canvas and Art Prints

"Unlike traditional photography where a gelatin emulsion protects the image, ink jet papers are porous like a sponge, even after the ink has been applied. In order to protect the image over time, a coating is needed to seal the print."

I use PremierArt's water resistant canvas in the 17", 24" and 44" widths (wish it came 36" wide). The photographer/artist tried to wipe what she thought was a spot of the printed portion of the canvas with a little moisture and the inks smeared! We spray all of the canvas prints with 3 coats of PremierArt's Print shield, which is a lacquer based finish; according to PremierArt's (Premier Imaging Products) website, this spray adds uv resistance, scuff resistance and water resistance. However - although the can the product comes in and PremierArt's website recommends its use on canvas, the website now says it will crack when canvas is stretched. That may be the problem!

Testing to commence as follows: I printed 2 of the same image on the water resistant canvas. They will be allowed to cure for a minimum of 24 hours. One of the canvas prints will be stretched on the bars (prior to spraying), and the other will be sprayed unstretched/prior to stretching. That one will be stretched after spraying. Then I will test each for water resistance.

Results to follow...

Printing with ICC Profiles

Quite a while ago I wrote about my colors (orange especially) not printing as expected. My oranges were yellow, etc. I did find a solution by going to the Epson large format forum at yahoo.com. That links to the Epson large format signup page at Yahoo.com.

The solution I found was to use ICC printer profiles. Bill Atkinson developed profiles for the Epson 7600 and Epson 9600 Stylus Pro Printers with either Photographic Dye ink or Multichrome ink. These ICC profiles are available as a free download at Epson's website - click here to to go their web page. Be sure to read his instructions on how to use his profiles. They are awesome and I have very few problems with color.

Epson recently changed their Premium semimatte photo paper from 250 gsm to 260 gsm; I still use the printer profile for the 250 semimatte paper, but I changed the print paper properties for all semimatte drivers from Premium semimatte (250) paper to Premium Semigloss Photo Paper (250) per Epson specification that come shipped with the paper (gotta read those).

Canvas Printing

Last week I printed several different canvases that were scans of oil paintings done by a very talented Arabian Horse photographer.

The challenge is that, due to time constraints, I was unable to see the original paintings - I made no alterations to the image files, which were received in RGB format as .jpg files. The artist was satisfied with the canvas prints, which she was taking to the Scottsdale Arabian show to sell in her booth as framed canvas prints of her oil paintings.

The artist thought the background was too red on one the prints. I made a collage of three of her paintings lined up on a black background (piece of cake in photoshop) for her; she thought that was too red also. I reprinted the collage and re-shipped at no additional charge. Actually I had to redo those canvas prints twice; there was a problem with the scan on the bay horse (his hoof) that we didn't catch on the first 2 shipments. It seemed like there was a piece of light that came in on the scan; it was easy to fix in photoshop using the clone and repair tools.

I found her easy to work with and look forward to doing more business with her.

Epson Stylus Pro 9600 Printer

The LCD readout on my Epson 9600 has had the message "Maint Req 0040" for several months now; the paper out lamp also flashes every 3 seconds. That requires servicing the cleaning assy, which is fairly simple to do. Then I started getting ink smears outside of the subject area (on the print head side margin), so I began to seriously think about getting on the ball and servicing the cleaning mechanism on the printer.

Then the lcd readout changed to Maint Req 0042. The 0002 specifies the CR motor (carriage return motor). After much research and almost paying big bucks for a service call, I decided to reset the counter on the CR motor. Apparently Epson built in counters (based on the number of pages printed) on several components (print head, CR Motor, PF motor, cutter, maintenance tank, etc). The component may be capable of performing for several more years. but Epson designed the printer to tell you otherwise.

Anyway, I reset the counter on the CR Motor by going into maintenance 2 mode as follows:

1. Turn off power to printer
2. Power back on while pressing these 3 buttons: Paper source, paper feed down, enter; the LCD will read "View Counters".
3. Press the paper feed down once, or until "Clear counters" shows on the lcd (NEVER EVER RESET COUNTER UNDER INIT ALL-THIS IS TO BE DONE AT THE FACTORY ONLY)
4. Press Selec type, then paper feed until "CR Motor" shows on the lcd
5. Press Selec type - the LCD should read "Exec"
6. Press Enter the CR Motor counter is reset to full life

If you need to back up through the menus, press the paper source.
When finished power off, then power back on.

Shipping Artwork

I just updated shipping charges for the larger size canvas prints (18"x24" and up). When I first started a few years ago, it was pretty cheap to ship the oversize stuff through the post office. Last year (2007) they increased their prices, but they were still cheaper than DHL on some stuff. Now DHL has changed their pricing structure to more accurately charge for dimensional weight on oversize items that are light. So the playing field is pretty level now as far as shipping is concerned. UPS is usually the most expensive, DHL and Fed EX are priced about the same as each other (and cheaper than UPS), and the post office is usually the cheapest. The trade off is that the post office doesn't have tracking except on express mail.

My next duty is to update shipping charges on the framed canvas prints and then the wood picture frames. The photo enlargements are okay as is - they ship rolled up in tubes, so the costs are reasonable.

Then I have to change the site setting to charge sales tax (yuk!) - I moved from Oregon (a no sales tax state) to California, where they tax you any way possible.

Lastly I have to chnge the zip code settings to offer the free shipping in my area (Redding, Anderson, Cottonwood, etc...)