We can print most any size. Need 13×16? No problem. 21×56? No problem. With some media we’re able to print 60×120″; with almost all other media we’re able to print up to 44×120″. We specialize in prints 8×10″ or larger.
Sure we can! For small, flat pieces (12 x 17″ or less) we can scan them on a flatbed scanner, creating a high resolution digital file. For larger or non-flat pieces (e.g. oil or acrylic paintings), we reproduce them by photographing the original on a black backboard using high quality digital photographic studio equipment, polarized strobe lights and colour temperature corrections. Again, the result is a high resolution digital file. Read more about our reproduction service.
If you want a printed reproduction of the original, we’re happy to quote on printing it for you. Either way, you get the high resolution digital file for the initial scanning or reproduction charge.
Note: If you created the original work in question, we’re happy to reproduce it for you. However if the work was created by someone else — a painter, photographer or other creator — we follow Canadian copyright law. This means that we need to see that you have the original creator’s permission for you to reproduce the work.
Yes, we do scans of reflective art (prints, drawings, and non-textured paintings). We can originals up to 12 x 17 inches. The scanning fee provides you with a high resolution digital file with basic colour correction. We can do additional work on the scanned images as part of our retouching service.
Yes we do!
No, we don’t.
This is one of the most common questions we get, and the answer is always, “it depends.” Looking at a print on paper or canvas is not the same as looking at digital pixels on a screen for many reasons, and size is one factor that doesn’t always translate the way you might think. We regularly encounter situations where an image can be printed larger than a customer expects, but many others where the biggest useful size is much smaller than expected.
Many factors influence how far a digital file can be enlarged before it could be considered not to work at that size. Key factors include: your personal taste for image detail and sharpness, the taste of the audience (if the print isn’t staying with you), the pixel resolution of the digital file, the amount of detailed subject material in the photo, the paper it will be printed on, how the digital processing and sharpening is done, how close the viewers will be when looking at the finished piece, the lighting on the piece in its display location, etc. All of these things combine to create a flexible range of sizes that work better or not so much. We can guide you through it, but rarely is there a simplistic “right answer” dictating that a file can be printed at one size but not another.
We can help you answer this question better if we know how big you’re thinking of printing the image. If you’re thinking of printing something approx. 20×30″ vs approx. 40×60″ print, it’s great to know and will help us get you better information.
In the Lightroom file export window, you should select the following options: TIFF or PSD file format, Adobe RGB 1998 colour space, native file size (do NOT upsize or downsize the resolution), 8-bit or 16-bit, no extra sharpening.
When working in Photoshop, most likely you’re using TIFF or PSD as the file format. Go ahead and send those to us. If you have a bunch of layers in your file, leave them in place, don’t flatten the file. That way if we need to tweak or adjust anything to optimize your image for printing, the edits have not all been “cooked” into the base file.
16-bit files potentially contain more tone and colour information, especially if you use a high-quality imaging approach such as shooting a raw camera format or doing high resolution film scans. If your files are absolutely print-ready, and we are guaranteed not to have to do anything to them, then 8-bit files are fine in most cases. But if we need to process the file, then 16-bit may be a better choice.
We think the NEC PA SpectraView monitors are a fantastic series, the best bang-for-buck options for colour critical work.
We also like the Benq SW series monitors. A great choice if NEC doesn’t work for the budget.
You should be calibrating your monitor if you care about accurately looking at colour, and hope that what we print for you will match what you see on your screen. If you don’t calibrate, you’re playing a version of Russian roulette with digital colour.
Not all monitors are equally well suited to photographic processing or other colour critical work; if a monitor is poor, calibrating it won’t necessarily help.
Common calibration values are luminance of 90 – 120 cd/m2, 2.2 gamma, and D65 / 6500K white point. The ambient lighting in your environment may call for a different luminance value. If your calibration software doesn’t allow you to set these values, it’s likely not a suitable tool to use.
If your calibration software has a function to automatically adjust the calibration based on the level of light in the room, disable that feature. It’s far better to control the ambient light to keep it consistent, rather than have inconsistent ambient light trigger changes in monitor calibration.
The monitor calibration tool we currently use is the X-Rite i1 Display Pro.
Absolutely. Our profiles are specific to our own photographic printing system, so you can’t use them to print on your own personal printer if you have one. However you can use our profiles to soft proof your images in Photoshop or other advanced photo editing software.