February 22, 2008
Harvest Productions at ARTEXPO NYC '08!
Come Visit Harvest Productions at ARTEXPO New York '08!
Harvest Productions is participating in the launch of TruChrome™ at the 2008 New York Art Expo, February 28th through March 3rd.
TruChrome™ is the next generation of digital printing technology, being endorsed by the National Museum of American Illustration (NMAI). I am proud to play a part in the development of a product which serves the discriminating requirements of the museum community.
This is an important step forward in Giclee technology, serving those who need both the quality and differentiation.
I have linked the museum information here and will be in New York at the show. If you want to know more, visit me at booth 2119 on Thursday the 28th between the hours of 10:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. or you can e-mail me at John@harvestpro.com
February 8, 2008
Harvest Productions & ArtNow
Harvest Productions is proud to announce the February, 8 2008 signing of a five year exclusive contract with Art Now.
John Doe the owner of Harvest Productions says:
I believe that ArtNow is uniquely positioned to serve the art collectors by providing access to many of the popular and proven brand names the art market today. James Lamberts artists management company provides the integrity in art selection that investors look for. ArtNow provides the both access and a business opportunity, Harvest will be responsible for all art production. As such we can guarantee quality and authenticity.
The exclusive nature of the ArtNow relationship allows both companies to concentrate on there individual areas of expertise. Harvest Productions has the established quality standard and the capacity to accommodate the rapid growth inherent in the ArtNow business model.
January 4, 2008
Quinn Publishing TruChrome™
John Doe, owner of Harvest Productions, purchased his first IRIS printing machine in December of 1988. It was the beginning of a whole new world. The IRIS had the unique mechanical ability to produce an unprecedented small 3 Pico Liter droplets (the size of a human red blood cell). This allowed for the creation of full color, continuous tone imagery, with no evidence of machine technology. Clearly, this was a breakthrough.
Over these many years, Harvest Productions has tested virtually every generation of new printing technology. Harvest has employed, since 1994, printing machines other than the IRIS for specialized purposes. That is to say, the IRIS is limited to 34” x 47” sheet format and the Roland 540 allowed for a 54” roll format. Although with the current substrates and inks available at the time, the Roland didn’t print to the same quality as the IRIS, it was justified by the customer’s size requirements. Early in 2007 we were, for the first time, able to manufacture IRIS quality prints with technology other than IRIS. In fact, the color looked virtually identical, but had a hidden benefit.
The IRIS machine requires the use of dye-based inks. You might think of dye-based inks as being similar to water color inks. Everyone knows that oil based paints have greater durability than dye based watercolors. There’s a parallel in digital printing. It’s simply the case that pigmented ink printers have not had the ability to replace the IRIS printing machine in total for the last seventeen years. But that’s changed now. With the advent of new canvas substrates and inks for non-IRIS printing technology such as the Roland, we can now replicate the color quality previously only available on the IRIS. Since April 2007, Harvest has been working to re-color correct its IRIS imagery to the more stable pigmented inks. Harvest has now retired its twenty-two IRIS printing machines in favor of Roland technology for the purpose of giving its customers the extended longevity. This is, admittedly, a tremendous amount of re-proofing work in order to attain the state-of-the-art Giclée, but it is a requirement. As a member of the Giclée Printers Association, Harvest pledges to use and support “the highest quality available to the world culture at this time.” With the advent of modern materials, it would be imprudent of Harvest to keep its established customers on a technology that didn’t offer the longevity of pigmented inks.
One of the responsibilities a mature company has is in carrying forward its customers with an integrated upgrade path. Our customers expect that, regardless of the amount of time that has gone by, that they will be able to sell their on-demand product with the confidence that it represents state-of-the-art technology. We have been committed to this since our founding of the GPA and remain faithful to that commitment.
The American Classic Art Collection features the newest most accurate replications ever accomplished through the Quinn Publishing TruChrome™ process on custom-made canvas with custom-made pigmented inks and printed by Harvest Productions. This process has been approved exclusively by the National Museum of American Illustration for Quinn Publishing.
View the images and read more about this exciting news....
May 25, 2007
Ink Jet Canvas
by: Chris O'Flaherty
As the marketplace and the fine art printing industry expands the media manufactures, distributors and the printable substrate options available seen to double. This is a daunting task for anyone willing to weave their way through the endless selection of ink jet canvas. On top of that, you need to find a solution that is compatible in every way including, dry time, white point, texture, weight, ink acceptance, max density, and the list goes on.
Early on in my career as a color management specialist I had the opportunity to work at the JP Getty Center a world renowned museum in Los Angeles, CA. It was my job to choose the digital output equipment, inks, and media that they would us to print their reproductions, and when I say reproductions, these weren't for sale to the public or for their employees as Christmas presents, they were being used as a historical reference. Periodically the print would be compared to the original, oftentimes hundreds of years old, the curators would look for discoloration or signs of weathering on the original masterpieces. During the revarishing process of the originals the reproduction was present to ensure the originals accuracy to its historical reference. Eventually I put together a solution for them that would be color accurate, utilize the maximum color gamut, provide them with top quality canvas, and prints with true archival qualities.
Unfortunately, I can't share The Getty's trade secrets but here at Harvest Productions we enjoy sharing the results of our years of research and development. Currently the majority of giclee's manufactured on our aqueous based Roland's use Platinum Dot. We have found that it boasts the largest color gamut and highest densities of any canvas tested, something that is absolutely essential when creating an accurate reproduction. Out of all of the canvas / ink combinations tested through the years Platinum Dot exceeded all others chroma by 10%.