"First class service and quality. Artful Color went the extra mile to ensure that my reproduction matched my original and that I was pleased with the end product. Thumbs up!!"

—Russell Smith
Russell Smith Studios, Inc.
www.russellsmithart.com

Print Permanence

How long your prints will last without significant fading is the most important aspect of a print once a high quality giclée is produced. There are several print permanence labs across the country which do a good job with print permanence testing. These labs include the Wilhelm Imaging Research which has become one of the more respected print permanence authorities. Print permanence testing has a few significant issues when judging how long prints will last – testing is driven by the manufacturers, not all paper-ink-coating combinations are tested, a studio’s specific process is not tested, the results are not easily interpreted.

Artful Color is embracing the new standard in print permanence, I* Metric (pronounced i-star) from the Aardenburg Imaging institute. Mark H. McCormick-Goodhart created this standard in cooperation with Wilhelm Imaging Research to address the issues above. We are submitting our print-ink-coating combinations for testing using the I* Metric. These tests results are scored in a percentage of retained color and tone rather than a flat number of years. Image and test colors are even broken out by performance of specific colors. The ISO test done by manufacturers only tests the density of the primaries. I* test differences in key colors and gives weight to color differences the eye picks up more easily. Since there is no standard condition of light exposure for a print on display, a conversion table is also provided with the number of years on display for different lighting conditions.

We are very excited about our membership at Aardenburg Imaging and close relationship we are developing. We believe the testing of Artful Color’s ink-media-coating combinations by Aardenburg Imaging is a much better way to give our customers a more precise and understandable method to judge how long your prints from us will last. The I* Metric will also give you a better understanding of what the actual light exposure limits are. No other metric is comparable. This is another area where Artful Color demonstrates our superior skills not found at other Giclée Studios.

Questions? Need a quote? Call 919.363.6271 or send us an email.