The Beauty Is In The Details

Mountain Hawk Pigmented Ink Prints

Pigmented ink prints, or giclées as they are more commonly known, are made using a digital technique. An original work of art — in our case an Edward Curtis photograph — is scanned at extremely high resolution and the image printed on heavy top quality paper.

Fine art digital printers were originally designed to reproduce colorful oil and watercolor paintings. We learned that it is much more difficult to achieve the full range of sepia tones in a photogravure than to print the multiple colors of a painting, particularly when it comes to the fine distinction of dark shadow detail. To obtain the authentic look of a vintage photograph, we invested $85,000 in a state-of-the-art digital fine art printer, and then modified its software to apply 30 different shades of sepia tone ink. This allows us to reproduce every tone in a Curtis print — from near black and to medium brown to white highlights.

We custom make an exclusive mixture of seven sepia tone inks that, once properly combined, create a wonderful richness and sense of light. The inks are stable up to 120 years giving the pigmented ink prints a very respectable archival rating.

Our pigmented ink giclées are printed on 100% cotton watercolor paper imported from Somerset, England. This special paper has a rich texture and smooth surface that absorbs ink without blurring, allowing us to maintain high resolution and fine distinctions in our beautiful prints.