Digital Prints

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Mastering Digital Printing
Printing on Arches Uncoated
Since Arches Watercolor paper is probably the most well-known fine-art paper in the world, I thought I would try printing on it, especially since
the history of digital fine-art printmaking started on Arches uncoated (David Coons printed the first images for Graham Nash on it in Los
Angeles back in 1989), and many artists still use it for inkjet printing.
True to what I had always heard, my Epson 1280 inkjet prints on Arches Watercolor (Cold Press, 300gsm) started off dark and a bit muddy. This
is due to an uncoated surface that, although sized with gelatin, still allows for a lot of ink bleeding or “dot gain” (wicking of the ink through the
fibers). Using a couple of techniques provided by Royce Bair on the inkjetart.com/watercolor_printing.html website, mainly the Epson driver’s
Color Controls and Photoshop’s Transfer function, I was able to get a reasonable print.
However, when I printed an image that was better-suited for a muted presentation (see Figure 7.12), it looked even better, especially when using a
DIY printer profile I had made for this purpose.
Coated Inkjet Paper
This is where most of the action is for inkjet printing. Coated papers, which can include
versions of the fine-art papers mentioned above, have a receptor coating added to the paper’s
surface to better receive the inks and render the image (see Figure 7.13). This coating can
contain a whole host of substances such as alumina, silica, clay, titanium dioxide, calcium
carbonates, and various polymers. Coatings are specifically designed to enhance a desired
effect like better image quality, better binding with the ink, higher-color gamut, less ink
bleeding into the substrate, greater brightness, and so on. The coating can also change the
surface finish of the paper to be more glossy, matte, or anything in between.
Sulphite paper (also called “alpha cellulose” paper) is widely used and an alternative to 100percent
cotton paper. Instead of using cotton fibers, sulphite papers use pulp made from
wood chips that are cooked in calcium bisulphate or sodium sulphite. After bleaching and
buffering agents are added, you end up with a 100-percent alpha cellulose paper that is
pH neutral. See Table 7.3 later in this chapter for examples.
Figure 7.12 A soft, muted image
can work well on an uncoated
paper. Left: Shopping I as printed
on Arches Watercolor Cold Press
300gsm using a combination of
+15 Saturation in Epson’s Color
Controls plus a Photoshop
Transfer curve. Right: The same
image but printed through a
scanner-based DIY printer profile
made with ColorVision
ProfilerPLUS. Notice how the
shadows open up in the hair,
pants, and background.
© 2001-2004 Harald Johnson