Digital Prints

Signing and Numbering
If you’re producing an edition, you’ll probably want to sign and number your prints. There
are no hard-and-fast rules, although it’s traditional for the signature and date to go on the
right under the image, and for the edition number (if any) to go on the left. The title can
go in the center. This only works if there’s an empty border to sign on. If not, and the print
is matted, some sign the back (lightly), and some even sign the mat, although that’s not
recommended since the mat and the print may eventually part company. Don’t use adhesive
labels on the back if you’re concerned about print permanence.
Note that there’s an entire movement of photographer-artists who are opposed to the principle
of artificial limited editions when applied to digital prints that, in theory, can be produced
endlessly without any image loss. These artists produce open editions and sign and
number sequentially only. It’s a personal choice.
If it’s a limited edition, you’ll write the number as a fraction: the first number (the numerator)
is the number of the print; the second number (the denominator) is the full number
of the edition. Like this: 15/50 or 1/250.
As for the mechanics of signing, it’s conventional to sign art prints in pencil, although that
won’t work with glossy and other non-porous media. In that case, paint markers, gold or
silver pens, or other permanent marking pens are used (Sharpie brand permanent markers
have been known to fade rapidly). Some hardcore digitalists who are concerned with
“differential permanence” have been known to use pens filled with the actual black ink
from their printing inksets.
Chapter 9 ■ Finishing and Displaying Your Prints 283
Left: Chop by New York’s Marty Friedman, who for many years was a traditional fine-art printmaker with his own atelier where he did printing for such artists
as LeRoy Neiman and Salvador Dali. Always a photographer, Friedman is now starting to use the chop on his digital prints, one of which is shown. Right: New
Mexico digital fine-art printmaker Lynn Lown uses this chop on the work he produces at his studio. Lown trained as a traditional printmaker in intaglio,
lithography, and photography, and in 1996 he opened New Media Arts, Santa Fe’s first archival fine-art digital print shop.
Courtesy of (left) Marty Friedman/www.smfgallery.com and (right) Lynn Lown/www.nmarts.com.