Editions
Back when prints were made only by plate (and those laboriously by hand), there was a limit to how many prints could be produced before the plates would wear out. To indicate the quality of the print (how fresh the plates were that made it), each one was numbered. The earlier the number, the more true the image and the more valuable the print. This concept has carried over to modern day, and many artists still number their prints, regardless of the fact that the entire run of prints is now essentially identical. Numbered prints are generally limited, and the artist is making an agreement to produce no more than the advertised edition size. Editions can be several million, one or anything in-between. The more limited the edition, the more valuable the prints tend to be. Open edition prints are those which are not limited (obviously!) and are generally sold more cheaply. Limited editions or open editions can be signed or unsigned; an artists signature also adds to the value of a print.
Inkjet Printers
Two major components of printer output should be looked at when making your inkjet printer choice: DPI (dots per inch) and number of colors. Traditional desktop printers use four colors for printing (cyan, yellow, magenta and black), but photo-quality printers now commonly use 6 color (with the addition of a light cyan and a light magenta) and some are even available with 7 colors (the addition of a light black). The additional colors mean that paler colors are easier to match and don’t rely on spacing dots of dark color sparsely over a white background to achieve the correct tone.
DPI is another one of those terms that means a lot of different things when used in different contexts. In this case, I’m referring to how many ‘dots’ of color the printer can lay down on the paper in each inch. Anything over 720 DPI is generally considered high resolution, however I do notice a difference in quality when moving up to 1440 dpi! 2880 is the cats meow. When you see two DPIs listed, ie: 720 x 1440, they are indicating the DPI in two directions. A 1 inch square of paper would have a net of dots that, if you could count it, would have 720 dots in one direction and 1440 dots in the other direction, for a total of one million, thirty six thousand and eight hundred dots. In one square inch!
Another thing to consider is how large you want to print. For most artists, price is the deciding factor; a high-quality letter-sized printer can be purchased for $300-$400. A very nice mid-sized printer that will go up to 13″ wide will run you about $500. Once you get larger than that, you are looking at floor-standing (usually), roll-fed printers starting at 24″ wide that are priced around $1000. These printers are commonly available up to 48″ wide with an equally impressive price tag.
Inkjet inks come in two common varieties: dye sublimation and pigment inks. Most home printers and the most readily available cartridges for them contain pigment inks. Dye sublimation inks are mostly used for transferring images to tiles, mugs or mousepads. In my experience, the output of dye sublimation inks tends to be less true and more unpleasantly saturated than the pigment inks. It is difficult to get good blacks and smooth gradients. A dye sublimation printer would be an acceptable second printer for dedicated product purposes, but the real quality is being output by the pigment printers. Many printers will accept either dye sublimation inks, or pigment inks.
Several brands of printers are now touting archival inks, and have claimed that they will last 200 years. Naturally, since they’ve barely been around a decade, this is speculation based on testing and should be taken with a grain of salt. These claims are also maintained only on very specific papers, too! The inks that don’t make these claims will tend to fade and yellow over a few years, or even a few days if left exposed to direct sunlight and air, so it is worth the extra investment even if their ‘archival’ claims may prove to be optimistic.
Most inkjet printers can be outfitted with bulk inkwells. This is an attachment that sits on or beside your printer and feeds ink from a storage well into a dummy cartridge. Usually these printers have to be run with their covers off. It is important to remember that ink does not have anything resembling an indefinite shelf life, so it is only worth moving to bulk inks when you are using cartridges in very great quantities. They can be messy and do require a certain amount of mechanical comfort by the user. Not all printers can be outfitted with these units, and some of these units will invalidate your printer warranty. Buyer beware! Most new inks are not available in bulk for sometime after their introduction to the market and some printers have chips to prevent the use of bulk inks.
