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Any experience with CANVAS?

TyrantDesigner

TyrantDesigner

Art! Hot and fresh.
If you are planning on art prints expect some bothersome moaning about ink quality, colors and the such.

As for art prints themselves, Matte or semi-gloss should do you. anything more and it's counter productive. You might end up with people coming it to do glicee printing who won't take solvent printing only inkjet. Make sure to set up a professional photo booth for the artwork and absolutely make sure you charge for and complete spot color tests. but from experience most artists want matte or semigloss ... if they want glossy there is a varnish they can buy to make it glossy and protect the print..
 
bob

bob

It's better to have two hands than one glove.
sfr table hockey said:
...
Question for Bob: Do you know if you can call a solvent printed canvas a Giclee. I thought it had to be waterbased (archival 75-100 year) kind of thing? Just wanted your thoughts...
Click to expand...

You can call them whatever you want. I don't think there's any authority dictating and enforcing what may or may not be called giclee.

The term 'giclee' is an affectation adopted because the purveyor's of such felt that 'ink jet' or 'digital print' wasn't arty enough and they could possibly charge more money if they had their own special name. Especially one that would tend to hide what the thing really is.

As for myself, the work 'giclee' will never leave my lips. It's a print, call it a print.
 
Rooster

Rooster

New Member
The intellicoat magic series (both aqueous and solvent) has been the best canvas I've ever tested and I've tested tons of different canvases for giclee printing. It's thirsty and you can lay down a ton of ink. Which aids in everything from overall black density (d-max) to matching dark saturated colors.

Artists want matte canvas with at the most a semigloss coating. The high gloss finishes tend to get used more for decorative art. If they're selling ltd. editions then they won't want to have anything to do with the glossier finishes. If it looks glossier than the original painting they won't want it.

On an eco-solvent printer you can get away with print only and no coating. The inks have enough of a gloss additive in them and are far more durable than their aqueous cousins. There's also plenty of people selling eco-sol as giclees. They'll last longer when displayed and that seems to be the most important thing to both the artists and their customers.
 
Colin

Colin

New Member
Thanks for that Rooster. Prior to your post I ordered a roll of Neschen Monet, so we'll see how that goes.

I sense that I'm going to have to figure out a way to tactfully place a road-block in front of the spiraling black hole of time-wasting pickiness and colour scrutinizing by the artist crowd. How do you say "You get what you get" without getting their knickers in a knot?
 
J

jmcnicoll

New Member
Try the canvas from Big Dog Media Solutions. We print on their glossy canvas with our GS6000 with great results.

Jim
 
T

Traces of Texas

New Member
I hate to bring this older thread back up, but I figure it might be better than starting a new one.

I have a sign shop in Austin and recently bought a roll of Sihl Picasso for my GS6000. The colors have not been as true or as saturated for my photos as I had hoped, even though I'm using a color calibrated monitor etc....

Also, I have been unable to find an ICC profile for this paper on this printer. SIHL doesn't appear to have one on their website.

Any tips re: settings, temps etc...?

Thanks!
 
C

cwb143

New Member
Digital Canavas ?s

If it were me I'd call this guy. Phillip Kidd, Southern US
phillip.kidd@sihlusa.com
(757) 966-7180 x 806

He reallly knows the Sihl products as well as the production side of it.

Also if your not already I'd look into making your own profiles with Xrite Eye One spectrophotometer. they're not that hard to make.
 
S

signswi

New Member
Giclee has fallen out of favor for obvious reasons, now artists are specific in their cutlines "solvent digital inkjet print on X substrate" or whatever. Depends on the artist/studio/gallery. I wouldn't attempt artist canvas prints with a Roland but I'm super picky--have you tried Roland's own art canvas? http://www.rolanddga.com/solutions/fineArt/
 
T

Titan

New Member
Hello all, it's been over a year since there has been a post on this topic, hopefully others are still interested, as I am in this topic. I've been looking for a good canvas for many years. I'm printing with a Roland, and despite the nay-sayers, I have found the results as good or better compared to aqueous based prints.

I have tried at least a dozen brands of canvas with varying results. Intellecoat seems to be the popular choice, however I find, particularly with rich reds or browns that the ink pools inside the valleys of the canvas which looks horrible. Otherwise, Intellecoat is an average product. I find Roland's Mac 7 to be only slightly better, it's a fairly average product. I recently aquired a roll of Monet Canvas from Nechen which seemed to be Intellecoat re-branded. I have tried many house named products (repackaged Chinese imports) usually the problem is they crack on the corners when stretched. I did get great results with an extremely heavy canvas I purchased through Mondrian Hall / Unisource which they dubbed as their house brand. It was very thick (28 on the caliper if memory serves). It printed BEAUTIFULLY, mostly due I believe to a very very thick coating on the canvas that unfortunately smoothed out the texture of the canvas. Another problem with such a thick canvas was that the corners didn't finish very well as the folds were thick. Also, this canvas was more than double the cost of Intellecoat. Anyone had good experience with something else? I'm looking for a higher end canvas, and willing to pay more for something that worked better.

Thanks!
 
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sfr table hockey

sfr table hockey

New Member
I am still printing on both water based and solvent with the same brand of printer and did another test on canvas for both printers.

I had originally done testing with Mac7 canvas on both printers and the water based was way ahead.

Since then I tried Sihl Picasso and it was not bad on the solvent and prints looked as good as the water based on my test print.

Last I tried Amplis Breathing Color and the "Urth Pure G archival solvent canvas" in satin. (think it's new) and the solvent print was the same as Picasso or slightly better but the best part was once it sat for the day you had a hard time to scratch it. Compared to Picasso the scratch resistance was better on the Urth.

Also this saves one step in having to coat a water based canvas. Down side is the price was higher than other solvent canvas.

These were printed with Rolands ecosol max ink with an eyeone made profile.
 
T

Titan

New Member
sfr table hockey said:
...Last I tried Amplis Breathing Color and the "Urth Pure G archival solvent canvas" in satin. (think it's new) and the solvent print was the same as Picasso or slightly better but the best part was once it sat for the day you had a hard time to scratch it. Compared to Picasso the scratch resistance was better on the Urth.

Click to expand...

Hey TH - thanks for posting! Sorry - I'm just a little confused - is Amplis Breathing Color and Urth Pure G - are they two different canvases? What supplier are you using? I'm in BC but shipping from Alberta isn't bad. Are these both satin? I have a slight preference for Matte.

**Sorry for my laziness - I consulted Mr. Google and found that it is one canvas. Still would like to know if you deal direct or through a supplier. Thanks!

Thanks again!
 
signworldusinc

signworldusinc

Merchant Member
Hi Titan, we sell canvas printing media that we use for our own canvas orders and they come out very nice with positive feedbacks from customers consistently. If you want, we can ship you a few feet of our blank canvas so you can try it out to see if you like it for free. Our canvas roll is 50” x 100’ (18mil) with a semi-gloss finish. We can sell each roll to you at $159 and waive the shipping fees. Let me know if you are interested.
 
sfr table hockey

sfr table hockey

New Member
Titan said:
Hey TH - thanks for posting! Sorry - I'm just a little confused - is Amplis Breathing Color and Urth Pure G - are they two different canvases? What supplier are you using? I'm in BC but shipping from Alberta isn't bad. Are these both satin? I have a slight preference for Matte.

**Sorry for my laziness - I consulted Mr. Google and found that it is one canvas. Still would like to know if you deal direct or through a supplier. Thanks!

Thanks again!
Click to expand...

They carry a lot of waterbased media as well but they are out East. They also have a textured art paper that prints well with water based inks.

I have been able to order with another company in Edmonton that uses the Amplis products so I can get in on the 10 qty pricing and not need to buy 10 rolls.

However, that price is still no where as good as Signworldusinc offered and if the shipping is included then that alone is $50 savings. We may not be comparing apples to apples on product but might be worth a try.

I am at a spot where even if the media is $1.40 a sq ft but prints well and is archival, then I will pay more to ensure that. Single rolls have it about the same as the water based canvas which is always higher.
 
T

Titan

New Member
After much more experimentation I must recall my critique of Nechen's Monet Canvas. It appears to be superior to intellicoat's Magic brand when compared side by side. Amplis' "Urth" canvas is fantastic, but you do pay more for it, and it has less texture than Monet. FYI - Do not use Roland's MAC7 profile for canvas (its the one all dealers have suggested) it gives poor results across the board. I have had much more luck with high quality cast vinyl profiles. Hope this helps someone!
 
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