Table Of ContentJim Nickelson
Fine Art Inkjet Printing:
The Craft and Art of the Fine Digital Print
Fine Art Inkjet Printing: The Craft and Art of the Fine Digital Print Jim
Nickelson
www.jimnickelson.com
Editor: Joan Dixon
Project manager: Lisa Brazieal Marketing coordinator: Mercedes Murray Layout
and type: Hespenheide Design Cover design: Aren Straiger
ISBN: 978-1-68198-206-9
1st Edition (1st printing, June 2017) © 2017 Jim Nickelson
All images © Jim Nickelson unless otherwise noted Rocky Nook Inc.
1010 B Street, Suite 350
San Rafael, CA 94901
USA
www.rockynook.com
Distributed in the U.S. by Ingram Publisher Services Distributed in the UK and
Europe by Publishers Group UK
Library of Congress Control Number: 2016944451
All rights reserved. No part of the material protected by this copyright notice
may be reproduced or utilized in any form, electronic or mechanical, including
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without written permission of the publisher.
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While reasonable care has been exercised in the preparation of this book, the
publisher and author assume no responsibility for errors or omissions, or for
damages resulting from the use of the information contained herein or from the
use of the discs or programs that may accompany it.
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Printed in China
To Heather, for encouraging me to begin printing seriously;
to Becky, for supporting me in everything;
and to Eliza, for inspiring me to do it all .
About the Author
Jim Nickelson is a photographer whose work is driven by a sense of wonder of
the natural world and its underlying science. Jim works full time as a fine art
photographer and custom digital printer, and he teaches workshops on
photography and digital printing both privately and through Maine Media
Workshops.
Jim has received numerous awards for his photography, and his work has been
exhibited widely. His work resides in museums, as well as in public, corporate,
and private collections across the United States and Canada. Jim makes his home
in Camden, Maine, with his amazing wife and daughter. He can be found online
at jimnickelson.com and at nickelsoneditions.com .
Table of Contents
About the Author
Introduction
1Fine Art Inkjet Printing
The Craft and Art of the Fine Digital Print
Be the Director of Your Final Print
What Makes a Fine Art Print?
Why Print?
2Printing Hardware and Environment
Choosing a Computer
Choosing a Display Device
Choosing an Inkjet Printer
Making the Choice
Printing Environment
3Color Management for Printing
Introduction to Color Management
Setting Up Color Management
4Optimizing Your Workflow from Capture to Print
Optimizing Your Photographic Capture
Optimizing Your File
File Formats
5Image Editing
Image Editing Overview
Print Interpretation
Editing Your Image
Basic Sharpening and Noise Reduction
6Global and Selective Adjustments
Global Image Adjustments
Selective Image Adjustments
7Making the Print
Basic Printing Workflow
Soft Proofing
Resizing for Print
Output Sharpening for Print
Final Review for Defects
Paper Handling
Print Settings and Making the Print
RIPs
8Evaluating and Correcting the Print
Environment for Print Evaluation
Evaluation of the Print
Correction of the Print
9Choosing a Paper
Overview of Inkjet Papers
Considerations in Choosing Paper
Choosing a Paper
Recommended Papers
10 Editing for Print Interpretation
Artistic Intent and Print Interpretation
Print Interpretation Examples
Editing Print Interpretation Summary
11 Printing Black-and-White Images
Challenges of Printing Black-and-white
Black-and-White Printing Methods
12 Post-Printing
Handling the Print
Signing the Print
Protective Sprays
Storage
Shipping
13 The Next Level
Getting Better at Printing
Printing Large
Emphasizing the Print as a Physical Object
The Print Statement
14 Considerations for the Fine Art Market
Signatures, Edition, and Other Information on the Print
Archival Considerations for the Fine Art Market
Printing for Portfolios
Printing Your Own Marketing Materials
Appendix
Artistic Intent Should Drive Your Decisions
You Have to Know Where You Are to Know Where to Go
Optimize Your Starting Position
Do No Harm
There Are Many Ways to Get There from Here
Consistency, Usually
You Have to Go Too Far to Know That You’ve Gone Far Enough
Problems Are Opportunities
Live with Your Prints
The Print Is What Matters
It’s Only Paper
If You Think You’ve Seen Every Printing Problem Occur, You Are Wrong
Paper Choice Can Be Key for Achieving Artistic Intent
Emphasize and Deemphasize to Direct the Attention of Your Viewer
Paper Color Matters, Especially for Black-and-White Prints
Keep On Printing
Look at Great Prints
Embrace the Physicalness of the Print
Harmony with Your Print Statement
Don’t Let Your Presentation Bring Your Prints Down
Introduction
Fine art inkjet printing continues to increase in popularity as its quality now
surpasses many traditional types of printing and as acceptance into the art world
is essentially complete. Inkjet printing has finally come of age.
Over the past decade, I’ve worked as a custom fine art printer for clients across
North America. I’ve also been pursuing my own fine art photography career and
have been navigating the gallery world during that time. I’d like to share some of
what I’ve learned about fine art printing and, in particular, printing with the
intention of working with fine art galleries.
I wrote this book to provide a different perspective from a more traditional
technical book and to spend more time discussing how to realize your artistic
intent with a print as well as special considerations for the art world.
Before we jump into printing, let’s talk about what this book covers. In this book
we’ll talk about the basics of creating your own fine art prints using inkjet
printers, including details about both hardware and software. We’ll also talk
about more subjective aspects such as choosing a suitable paper and how to
realize your artistic intent in the print. Later chapters will address preparing your
work for presentation to fine art galleries and emphasizing the print as an object,
along with many other topics.
Throughout the book, standalone “Print Mastery” articles provide more
advanced information for those wishing to take their printing to the next level.
For beginning printers, feel free to skip these sections until you feel the need for
more information and are prepared to tackle them.
Over my years of printing and teaching I have developed basic principles that
underlie my decision-making throughout the editing and printing process. I’ve
identified these Principles of Printing throughout the text and gathered all of
them in the Appendix for your convenience.
I focus on Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop for digital darkroom software and
on Epson inkjet printers for hardware, because these are the most commonly
used tools for processing and printing. My goal, however, is to make these
materials generally applicable by providing principles that can be used with
different types of software, computer platforms, and printers.
Finally, I often refer to photographic prints and photographers, but the lessons
and tools in this book are equally applicable to making digital prints of any type
of artwork, such as reproductions of paintings or digitally created artwork.
Enjoy, and happy printing!
