Giclee Fine Art Print Systems: 'Giclee' pronouced 'jeeclay' simply translated means a 'spurt' of paint or ink. 'Geeclay Printing' was the original service name for the first, extremely expensive, digital 'Limited Edition' prints made on fine art rag papers using huge 'Iris' brand inkjet printers in the early '90s. Today we use systems that print on a huge range of papers, film and canvases with far more detail, full colour saturation, photographic tonality and archival permanence...

Exhibition Quality Archival Photographic Prints: Our 2,800dpi Epson K3 UltraChrome archival pigment printers produce class leading finely detailed ‘Exhibition’ and ‘Museum Quality’ photographic prints with a fade resistance of up to 100+ years!   We can print on cotton rag art papers, archival matte, pearl lustre and premium gloss photographic papers as well as 'CibaChrome' style mirror gloss pearl white film.

Cotton Rag Fine Art Prints: Cotton Rag prints used to be reserved for limited edition reproductions of watercolours as the limited black density, tonal range and saturation was not suitable for photographic subjects or representations of richly coloured oil and acrylic art. This changed with the development of rag papers with invisible ink receptor coatings that stopped the pigments soaking into the paper base and losing density. We now use the finest cotton rag media available: Breathing Color Elegance Velvet Platinum data sheet this 310gsm lighty textured 100% cotton media has tested superior to similar products from Hahnemuhle and Somerset etc. See Test Report. We are now authorised to supply a hand named and signed 'Fine Arts Trade Guild' Archival Certificate with each print.

Archival (100+ year life) UltraChrome Pigment prints on stunning acid free, fine textured, 310gsm cotton rag
Supplied with an Archival Quality Certificate  Above boxed set produced for The Fine Image Gallery

Oil Pigment Prints on Canvas: We use Premier water resistant artist's cotton canvas. It has a strong, traditional texture but is still smooth enough toreproduce finely detailed images. The medium gloss white coating combined with our colour management procedures provides high saturation with good colour accuracy. The ideal application is for accurate reproductions of oil and acrylic art but we can print photographic images with a range of border and framing options for home and commercial 'decor'.
See our 'BIG Canvas' promotion: Info

Canvases include 'Image Wrapping' or 'Classic Gallery' borders. See 'BIG Canvas' promo. Info

Sizes and Pricing: We cover all international sizes from A6 to AO and larger. Our Full Price List includes standard photographic formats such as 35mm ratio, 6x6cm square, 6x17cm panoramic etc. We can send 'Approval Proofs' with a reduced image and a section of the image at 100%. Our maximum 'print run' size is 44" x 90" on Archival canvas and papers and  24" x 90" on Cotton Rag media. To reduce large project costs we can 'gang up' images. print in bulk, costed at $x.xx per linear inch and supply rolled or trimmed. Please eMail David Myers for a quote. Send us your large images via our File Transfer Page

 Basic 'A' sizes and traditional photo sizes. For other sizes please see our Full Price List

We can make prints from...

Scans & Digital Camera Shots: Ideally we need RGB (Red, Green & Blue) files of at least 12Mb (Before compression) - a 5 MegaPixel Digital Camera file. If your files are a little smaller we can use special software to increase the size of the image. Use the lowest ‘JPG’ compression setting on your camera or use TIF. If your camera produces ‘RAW’ files we can process them with increased resolution and tonality. With scans set up your scanner to enlarge the print or the film to the final print size at 150 to 300dpi (See the info below). Send us your large images via our File Transfer Page

Digital Art & Montages: If you are starting from scratch set up your digital ‘canvas’ at the actual final print size at the following ppi (pixels per inch): A4 and A3 prints need 300 down to 200ppi. A2 can be 200ppi down to 150ppi. A1 and larger can be 150ppi down to 100ppi or even 75ppi. The larger the print the longer the viewing distance. A one metre print on the wall viewed from across the room only appears as big and as detailed as a postcard size print viewed from a few cm away! Send us your large images via our File Transfer Page

Photographic Prints and Artworks: We can scan or ‘digitise’ any 2D media, photographs, mounted and unmounted art even prints in glass picture frames if they can’t be removed. We have built a Digital Reprography system using a huge copy stand, a $46,000.00 high resolution digital copy camera and diffuse daylight balance lighting. This unique system can be used to digitise reflective originals from postage stamp size up to A2. A larger system digitises mounted art & paintings up to 1m x 2m. Diffuse, daylight balance lighting ensures colour fidelity and reduces the texture of canvas and watercolour surfaces of the original art so that we don’t print a ‘picture’ of the texture on top of our textured art paper and canvas. Print scanners can not do this!

Photographic Film & Glass Plates: We have been scanning film on our $400,000.00 Kodak Pro Photo CD system and other specialised scanners since 1992 and have now done over a million scans! If you have an original colour or black & white negative, transparency, slide or old glass plate we can get the most amazing detail compared to scanning a reduced quality print made from it. We can scan or digitise any film format: 16mm, APS, 35mm; half and full frame, panoramics, medium format roll films and sheet film up to 8” x 10”. We can digitise all lantern slides formats and glass plates up to 11”x14”.


Professional retouching and photo restoration services...

Retouching Photographic Film: We have scanning systems that automatically remove or reduce dust and small scratches and this is included in the scanning fee. Badly scratched film can be retouched by quote. We NEVER use any oils or coatings on film to ‘fill-in’ scratches as it can damage old, fragile emulsions. We don’t use high speed drum scanners as old film is often warped and it can get destroyed when spinning at 10,000 rpm!

Retouching Photographic Prints: Our scanning service fees includes basic contrast enhancement and dust reduction. Old photos, no matter how good they look at first glance, have tiny imperfections like creases, abrasions, stains, foxing and silver leeching. These become a real issue when enlarging 4x or more and usually require professional retouching and sometimes special lighting during digitisation. We inspect and quote.

Retouching Artwork: It sounds odd to think of artwork needing retouching but artists often ask for their signature to be removed form the image so they can hand sign and number each limited edition print. We often remove borders and background colours back to pure white so that we can print on tinted art paper. Wide borders the same colour and texture as the background paper can be created to create space around art.

IMPORTANT! All our digitisation and restoration process are ‘Non Destructive’: Copy lighting is heat free. Fragile emulsions and print surfaces are never touched or compressed under glass. All retouching is performed on the digital file by mature digital artists. Your original is always returned as we received it! We have been doing restorations since the pre-digital ‘60’s using photographic and airbrush techniques!

Years of digital imaging experience means we can quickly 'optimise' every image...

Image Optimisation: We have very expensive pre-press monitors on accurately calibrated Mac and Windows systems. When we open your file we ‘Soft Proof’ the image onscreen to show almost exactly how it will print. In a few minutes we can ‘optimise’ the contrast and density, remove any colour casts, fix up dark areas - even add a little density and saturation to washed out areas. Our clients rely on our skills and discretion to make their prints look the best. If major fix-ups are needed we will eMail a low resolution proof for approval. All optimised files can be supplied as ‘Digital Master Files’ on CDs or DVDs.

Image Manipulation:   We can replace or blur bad backgrounds, change colours, superimpose, remove double chins, wrinkles and age spots, whiten teeth and add a sparkle to the eyes etc. All work is quoted and is proofed and approved on-line.

See how we fix and optimise your images: 'Image Makeover' proofs page: Click Here

Print border treatments for traditional and contemporary display options...

Borderless Photo Prints: We can print your images right up to the edge of the paper if that is what you want. ‘Machine’ prints are supplied this way but have you ever noticed though how much the image is cropped?   Borderless images HAVE to be printed bigger than the final paper size so that trimming does not leave any white edges behind. We produce borderless photographic prints at standard ‘A’ sizes for the standard price - just remember you will lose a little of the image edges and they can be hard to frame.

Thin Photo Print Borders: We recommend a traditional thin white border (3-5mm) so that the entire image is displayed without cropping. We produce bordered photographic prints by default.

Wide Art Borders: Watercolour art often works well with a wide border so that the image does not look ‘cramped’ in the frame or the matte overlay. The size of this border is an aesthetic decision made by you - the artist. It should, however, be the same colour and texture as the background paper in the image. If the original art has little or no border we can use retouching to extend the background as a seamless border so you don’t get an ugly white area around the image. We quote on adding wide borders to watercolour images as it may involve retouching work.

Canvas Borders for Traditional Framing: Canvas is unique as it needs to be ‘stretched’ over a wooden frame to remove wrinkles. If the image is an old painting, traditional art or a classic portrait it will probably look best with a traditional frame. If so all you need is a border wide enough to wrap around the edges of the ‘stretcher’ for side stapling - Say 25mm all (Adding 50mm total to your chosen image size). Bear in mind that the chosen frame may obscure up to 10 - 15mm of the image edges.

'Wrapped Canvas' Borders: for home and office Decor with the canvas and often the image itself appearing to be ‘Wrapped’ around a stretcher giving the appearance of a block. To do this we make a print that incorporates a 56mm border: 38mm runs down the side of the stretcher and 18mm wraps around the back for stapling.

We add an extra 56mm border to all canvas sizes for FREE: To allow for frame stretcher 'wrapping' we add a 38mm 'side border' plus an 18mm 'back stapling' border. You can choose to leave the 38mm side border blank white,  have it coloured to match the image or 'wrap' the image around the sides. If the main subject is too close to the edge of the frame we can retouch the background to extend it the required 38mm. This is how it works...

A. We can leave the whole 56mm canvas border blank for 'white sides' wrapping...
- 38mm of blank canvas will go down the side of a 38mm stretcher displaying white sides.
- 18mm of blank canvas will go around the back of the stretcher for hidden stapling.
- Canvas will have the image the same the size as ordered and the frame will have traditional blank canvas sides.

B. We can print the image 38mm bigger on all sides so that it ‘wraps’ around the stretcher frame...
- 38mm of extra image will go down the side of a 38mm stretcher displaying a ‘wrapped’ image.
- 18mm of blank canvas will go around the back of the stretcher for hidden stapling.
- Canvas will have the image enlarged 76mm in width and height to wrap the image around the frame sides.

C. We can print a matching colour 38mm on all sides of the image to add a classic border...
- 38mm of coloured area will go down the side of a 38mm stretcher displaying a coloured sides.
- 18mm of blank canvas will go around the back of the stretcher for hidden stapling.
- Canvas will show the image the same the size as ordered with coloured canvas wrapping around frame sides.

D. We can retouch tightly framed images to extend the background 38mm to allow ‘wrapping’...
- 38mm of extra image will go down the side of a 38mm stretcher displaying a ‘wrapped’ image.
- 18mm of blank canvas will go around the back of the stretcher for hidden stapling.
- The image is retouched 38mm on all sides to make more background to wrap around the frame sides.

E. We design exhibition 'Templates' with 'Faux Matte' borders, logo, title, signature even multiple images...
- And don't forget that you can also use traditional frames and framing techniques as well as 'stretch wraps'

Click to enlarge

Call David Myers on (02) 9949 6090 to discuss logo and signature and titling options.

DMA has the longest history of digital photographic printing...

1987: The year of the Mac II computer with 16.8 million colours. As consultants to Village Roadshow we would image photo files from 'PixelPaint' (No PhotoShop then!) onto film using digital film recorders and make lab prints - very slow and expensive!

1990: We installed Australia’s first Kodak Dye Sublimation 'Photo Quality' printer The $40,000, 85kg, monster produced beautiful 10”x10” prints but only at 205dpi. Images faded in bright light after a year or so and the images sometimes ‘melted’ in PVC photo albums!

1993: Brought the $45,000 Fuji Pictrography thermal dye transfer printer with stunning 400dpi photo output. Fortunately digital files last forever because the Fuji prints lasted about 2 years. Beware there are still some labs using these machines! Good quality but not archival permanence.

1996: Saw the first Epson Stylus Photo Inkjet printers - Affordable A4 and A3 output but we had faded green prints after one to two WEEKS in bright light. The printers sold like hot cakes, regardless, and the technology progressed...

Now: We have now seen inkjet technology progress through, Long Life Dye, Outdoor Signage Pigment and Photo Quality Pigment media. We now have 'Wide Gamut Archival Pigment' printers that use microscopic droplets of oil paint encapsulated in resin to print at true photo quality onto a wide range of photo papers and art media. We use Epson's 'UltraChrome' Pigment printers - the first to be approved by museums for Fine Art, 'Giclee' printing. The UltraChrome process with acid free papers gives an indoor print life of over 70 years for colour, 150+ years for black and white. A bonus is that UltraChrome Pigment prints made on canvas are real 'Oil Paintings'!

Full Price List - View PDF  •  Also see our 'BIG Canvas' Promotion - Info