FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Fine art printing is the term often used to refer to professional photographs being printed on very high quality paper. This designation, which is by no means a label, meets certain quality criteria, with regard to the paper in particular, which are sought after by many photographers and printers. The difference between fine art paper and normal photo paper lies in the composition of the paper itself. As a matter of fact, natural fibres (usually cotton or alpha cellulose) must be included within the composition of fine art paper. The paper is not artificially bleached with chlorine, thus ensuring that the photos stand the test of time. A major asset in the sphere of fine art photography!
 
Normal photo paper meet the needs of some users when it comes to printing photos to be viewed on an occasional basis, whereas fine art paper will ensure that images are shown off in their best light and provides good performance when exhibiting prints.
 

Because fine art paper is intended for the printing of high quality photographs, its quality must be ideally suited to receiving inks and pigments. The composition of the surface layer must allow the ink to adhere well over time, while offering a neutral pH to ensure that the paper also stands the test of time.
 
Lastly, a fine art paper will allow you to emphasize the composition of the image, while providing the ideal support for intense colours and marked contrasts, while also enabling a wide range of grey tones.
 
When printing your professional photos, do not hesitate to contact us. We will be able to assist you in making the best choice when selecting a paper that is capable of showing off your work in its best light.

Adobe RGB 1998 colour space

Cropped to size @300dpi including border if required,  jpeg or tiff

8 – bit flattened with no layers, extra channels or paths

Of course, if its something we cant fix in 5 minuites, we will simply charge you a minimal labour fee calculated in 5 minute blocks at $15 each.

Generally we can adjust up to 30 files for 5 minutes (depending on size and requirements)

Yes. Please phone ahead for an appointment. Labour is charged at $15 per 5 minute block.

Odd sizes are not a problem. Just choose the square inch paper rate from our pricelist and do the following calculation:

WIDTH X HEIGHT X PAPER RATE = $print cost

Please visit the support section and view the folder structure document, it will save you time filling in a tedious order form and minimise confusion.

Windows: Right click on folder> Send to> Compress folders

MAC: Control click on folder> Compress

Please fill out your card details on the secure online order form when ordering your prints

Yes. Please notify us when placing your order so we can send you an invoice before printing.

A transfer receipt via email is required before we can release your order.

If you have set up your files correctly and provided all required information you may not hear from us until your prints arrive or are ready to collect, that’s the best bonus of our automated system.

If we find any discrepancies with your files, or need extra information we will call or email you to confirm how to proceed.

The turnaround depends on which products you have selected. Please view the pricelist for individual turnaround times.

Of course, we are located at 90 Abercrombie St, between Cleveland Rd and Broadway.

All day free parking can be located on Myrtle St or metered parking is in surrounding streets

Yes. We can ship the prints worldwide with only a shipping slip (this will show our details as the sender) and post the invoice to you.

Yes although the minimum order fee of $25 still applies. We offer 10% discount on printing and labour charges for all students.

Please show your student ID when dropping off your order or scan a copy for website orders. This is only required once, then we keep your details in our system.

We can although at peak times this can take some time, we do prefer you copy your files to a device we can keep with your order.

There are two options.

1. Open your image in photoshop and resize to final front face size then go to Image>Canvas size. Tick “Relative” and enter 4inches of black or white border. This will wrap around the side and back of your canvas.

2. If you would like image to wrap please use photoshop guides to preview image wrap around. Eg: If you would like a 20x30inch final frame size you need to create an image 24x34inches.

All acrylic items lose 2-3mm off each side when manufactured.

Eg: 8x10inch (203x254mm) acrylic block will have an actual finished size of 7.8x9.8inches (198x249mm)

Templates are available in the support section of our website.

We asked Photoshop guru Mark Galer www.markgaler.com the following question.

QUESTION

A lot of our clients are buying iMacs and are unable to bring the screen to the 120 to 140 cd/m2 we recommend. We normally recommend Charcoal Design SHADES to fix the issue. This articlerecommends some other software as well.

Do you have a preferred method to get an iMac profiled to the 120 to 140 cd/m2 we recommend?

ANSWER

That's an interesting topic you raise about the iMac screens. Because these screens are only 8 bits there is a school of thought that they are not really suitable for calibrating down to 120-140 from their native luminance anyway - due to the banding this may cause. The Shades App does warn that this may not be suitable for colour critical work as it can upset monitor profiling and Apple's latest Mountain Lion operating system will prevent users installing any app that is not downloaded through the Mac App store (Shades is not currently available).

My own thoughts would be to not recommend an iMac screen for 'soft proofing' in a 'side-by-side' setup (screen and print viewed at the same time). Most users who purchase a daylight viewing cabinet or set up optimum daylight viewing conditions for viewing prints will probably also be using a better quality monitor as well.

If the screen image and the print are viewed separately (one at a time) most users will not have a problem with Luminance values set higher than 140.

Many Mac users find that when they download our ICC profiles, the files show as Text files. To resolve this, Option + Click on the ICC profile on our website and it should download successfully. ICC profile installation instructions can be found in "Working with Pixel Perfect" available from here

We are open Monday to Friday, 8.30am to 5.30pm.