The Epson SP 9900
Yes, I went into this business thinking I can work with other suppliers to print our artworks and all I have to do were to shake hands with artists, promote their artworks, run a website and have a pint after work.
WRONG!!
For those of you who aren’t from Malaysia, we actually have TONS of people in the printing business here, predominantly with offset and inkjet printers, printing everything you can think of – Buntings, banners, flyers, billboards, coupons, invitation cards, name cards, stickers, fake tattoo stickers – EVERYTHING. So you really can’t blame me if I just assume that there would be someone who prints Giclée/Archival quality artworks around here.
Well there were that handful I found after googling and calling up my contacts for weeks. Naturally appointments were made and you will not believe this, but besides them being a tad arrogant, most of their quotations were all way too expensive.
“If your business is about making art more affordable and if you feel we’re too expensive, buy your own printer.”
And I did, together with the other components that were necessary (yet no one tells you about) in the printing business. I just wanted to make sure that we were doing it right.
This is what 3editions uses:
The Printer.
The Epson Stylus Pro 9900, now strengthened with 11 archival inkjet colours, represents the most advanced printing technology in this generation by combining the precision of a MicroPiezo TFP™ print head with the extraordinary performance of Epson UltraChrome® HDR inks. This is a quality perfect for Giclée printing of gallery-approved fine art prints, which last for at least 100 years and is guaranteed by Epson.
11 colours in a printer just sounds awesome
The Colour Management Monitor.
Eizo ColorEdge CG series monitors offer hardware calibration which means color settings are adjusted inside the monitor so there is no displayable loss of tonalities. This produces more predictable results and ensures color display is much more uniform between ColorEdge units.
It just had to be from Japan :P
Colour Management Tool.
With i1Basic Pro 2 you can quickly and easily create custom monitor and projector profiles that ensure the colors you view are true, verify soft proofs and print quality with built-in Quality Assurance (QA) tools, and easily capture and manage spot colors.
i1Basic Pro 2 combines world-class hardware and software to deliver the ultimate professional level color management for imaging pros.
i1Pro 2 Spectrophotometer. The most accurate and forward thinking profiling device available today – bringing a new level of accuracy, reliability, versatility and ease of use, it delivers an expanded professional-level feature set including the latest developments in ISO standardization.
The boys thought it was a case of weapons of mass destruction
The entire process of learning the printing trade was very exciting for us. We now have new-found knowledge that would help with the business and never knew that getting your prints right could be so intricate, precise and somewhat sexy. ;)
Calibration at work
Color chart to calibrate both the monitor and printer
Getting the colours right
The entire day
Looking back at this, I’m glad I’ve decided to still pursue this even after knowing the level of investment involved. And learning something new can be scary at times, especially when you’re off your comfort zone. What I have really learnt is this. If you want something, like truly want something, you will break down walls and go beyond your means, and yourself to get it.
W
I had no expectations of how it would feel like to go on radio. Strangely I wasn’t even nervous when I got into the studio (As compared to my previous live TV appearance on Hello On Two which will be posted up here when I get the damn clip – It’s taking freaking forever.)
The Forth Edition 