New Giclée Printer Opportunities

I had been using a Pixma Pro 200 by Canon since 2021. It was old enough that Canon was no longer servicing the machine. 

It died this last week, and I had no choice but to upgrade to a new printer. 

The upgrade was expensive. And it comes with a host of other issues that have forced me to start thinking about my art in a new direction.

In short, it does not do full-bleed borderless images like my previous printer did in the sizes I use. Due to the logistical mechanics of the printer machinery itself, the sizes I use come with a built-in margin. So I can’t fill images to the very outer edge anymore. If I need a full-bleed image, I have to print it on a larger piece of paper, and cut away the unnecessary excess to reduce the finished size back to what I need.

The ripple effect of this is profound. I cannot spend my life cutting paper. It’ll be more expensive and incredibly wasteful. It reduces my profit margin by almost 25¢ per greeting card. And I can’t simply downscale the image because stretching the front cover over the back spine of my greeting cards looks weirdly unbalanced with a white margin on only three sides when the card is closed.

And that means I have to reformat all the cards I print going forward. It also means I have to retake all the product photography for all my other greeting cards I’ve made in the past. And I have to change the template text for each listing as well. On two sites—my own Shopify site and my Faire wholesale site.

It’s the definition of a nightmare.

That being said, there are some real advantages to the new printer. My new Canon ImageGRAF PRO Pro-1100 is a high end home printer.

First, it prints in actual pigment, not dye-based ink. That means everything I print from here on out will be considered a Giclée (pronounced zhee-clay), with archival capacity. Giclées are the closest one can get to reproducing an actual painting. (I suppose the only way one can get more authentic is to create a forgery!) Giclée prints are the best one can get. The pigment ink lasts longer than the dye-based inks I had been using, so one can tack on another 75 years to the longevity of everything I print with it, which is probably in the 175-200 year range if the print is taken care of and not exposed to direct sunlight.

That’s no small potatoes. It shifts everything I do toward a more “art” modality and away from a mass produced world.

Secondly, it can print large sizes I couldn’t make before. The largest I could get with the Pixma Pro 200 was 13x19”, and I purposely chose to do 11x17” prints because I felt that size was much more common. But now, with my new Gicleé printer I can print up to 17x25”!! That means I can print my work at a scale that really shows off the detail and reveals all the wonderful textures I put into it. It means I can create bigger framed prints that are on par with large art photography prints, in smaller print runs that demand commensurate pricing. I may end up downshifting my limited edition print runs to 10 or 15 (with optional frames) instead of 30, because I can print them at a larger scale.

Third, the printer uses 12 different inks, expanding the gamut of colors I can print considerably and rendering richer values in ways the transparent dye inks couldn’t do. The blacks are blacker and richer to the eye, the contrasts can be stronger or more subtle depending on whatever is required, and some colors are more saturated than I could achieve before. My latest images appear to be much richer and physically more substantive than the ones done with my former dye-based inks. The overall effect is one of a more “traditional” art piece.

Fourth, the pigment inks are sold in larger quantities that will last longer than the dye-inks I’d been using. I spent thousands of dollars on ink every year, purchasing it 12.6 ml a time in 8 different colors. Now I’ll be able to cut that in half, purchasing 80ml at a cheaper rate. And without doing a lot of borderless imagery, I can decrease my ink usage even further, reducing materials costs even more.

All of these reasons mean I can create work with its primary function being art instead of stationery. It’s a subtle, incremental shift in direction that completely changes my trajectory long-term. 

I also think the reformatting of the imagery will lend itself to a more "art card" feel rather than a "greeting card" feel. Most of the mass produced greeting cards I find commercially (like at grocery stores or drug stores) are printed borderless. And while that's wonderful, I'm also realizing that most cards featuring reproductions of traditional art have margins (like the ones in museums and galleries), making the card feel like a print version of the piece with its original ratio rather than a cropped version of the art itself. It's the difference between the greeting cards printed through Fine Art America (which accepts mass-produced AI imagery and are primarily borderless) and those printed through InPrint (which requires a jury of peers to sell on the platform and don't seem to offer a borderless option). The implication is clear: borderless can sometimes communicate "cheap" even when we don't realize it.

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I have a habit of second-guessing my own attempts at success, and letting my “back up plans” undermine my efforts to really stretch myself. Then I swing back and justify my backup plans as my main goal after all, easily giving up on my original intent. I am not embarrassed to say that I’ve wanted to be an artist all my life, but found lots of diverting paths that convinced me I should do other things to play it smart. When I thought about going into theatre, I told myself I needed to teach in order to make a living. When I finally decided to do art, I chose to make it practical in the form of stationery. But now I have an opportunity (albeit without much of a choice) to lean into art that must stand on its own as its own expression, making it about itself and not the form it takes.

I won’t lie: it’s a bit scary. Part of me says, “Well, if you’re art was so good, it would be selling like hotcakes right now.” But another part of me says that if I think about it that way, I’m dooming myself to failure.

I already know that I have too many pieces I’m trying to sell. I have never been good at determining what is my best work and what isn’t, so I’ve accumulated a body of work that is daunting with too much material to choose from when trying to make a purchase. I think my printer's implosion is actually a happy accident that will help prompt me to cull out what isn’t selling and put forward stronger pieces more people will want in a way that makes them easier to find.

At least that’s what I’m telling myself! Ha!

I will probably be taking down some of what I offer from my shop listings as I won't be printing a lot of it anymore. The plan is to revise the images that sell more than most, and use my inventory tracking tool to determine what is taking up space and making things too confusing to find anything with ease. This is a good opportunity to simplify and clarify what I make.

So it’s all good. It’s a fork in the path I knew what was coming up. And I think I was waiting for it to happen. Now to make it work. 

Onward!