I wanted to share a link (Vermont Verncacular) with you to the Brattleboro Museum's web blog. My studio, Cone Editions Press, printed the three editions of prints which the Museum is using as a fundraiser and is the subject of both their blog and this newsletter. Wolf Kahn's painting was especially difficult to reproduce because of both the intense color palette he uses and the way he glazes similar tones of dissimilar color. The intense purple of the woods would be a challenge to any ink set, and I selected to use the ConeColor K3 Vivid inks which I can install in both our Epson 7880s and 7800s. The editions were printed all at once with a tight deadline and several printers were needed in order to print the finished files simultaneously.

The paintings for these prints were imaged using a Joe Tarsia built overhead scanner with a Phase One medium format digital camera back and a 135mm Apo-Digitar lens. The sharpness of the lens and the absolute parallel capture plane of overhead scanning allowed me to capture the detail of the painting's surface and nuances. The lighting I use for this system is a little out of the norm - opting for flicker-free 5000k video banks from the film industry rather than the "hot" and invasive HMI lighting that most Giclée studios use. I also appreciate the softness of this lighting. Sometimes I feel HMI reproductions are too literal, looking more like "reproductions" than "fine art prints".

My studio has a 5000k Gamma 1.8 color managed workflow. I prefer to use 5000k and Gamma 1.8 as they more closely mimic human perception than does 6500k and Gamma 2.2. Cone Editions exclusively uses 5000k lighting in all of the studio's overhead lights, also in calibrating the Sony Artisan and Eizo LCD displays, ICC profile creation, and in the GTI variable intensity viewing booths. By maintaing this type of consistent capturing, viewing, and imaging environment I am able to make short work of difficult color matching.

The paper I selected for these projects is vintage Somerset for Cone fine art paper which I had milled for me in 1991. This paper has a different surface texture than traditional Somerset Enhanced. The sizes I had milled were originally designed for photographers: 16 x 20, 20 x 24 and 24x36. I used the 24x36 sheets to sheet feed the printers. I did not have enough time to uncurl rolls of paper and did not want to burden the museum with prints that had any resemblance of a "curl". Fine art editions are meant to be perfectly flat so that they can be easily handled by the artist as well as the collector, and eventually the framer. This absolutely minimizes the chances of damaging prints.

The prints were deckled on two sides. Tearing away from the image from the reverse produces the most natural deckle possible. Tiny pin targets are printed at the desired margin width at the four corners on the front of the print. These are set up when the margins are included in "Canvas Size" in Photoshop. While they add a few minutes to the printing process for each print, they allow us to finish a consistent edition with each print having the exact same dimensions including white margins. A pin is pushed into each of the 4 marks. The paper is carefully turned over, a straight edge is used in conjunction with the barely visible punctures on the verso and the unwanted paper is torn away from the straight edge creating a torn deckle. A bone folder is used to then press back down the torn edge remaining on the print. When the print is turned back to its face side, a very soft and natural deckle is evident, there is no pin-hole and any subtle marking of the process to create the deckle (that the bone folder did not erase) is limited to the reverse side.

To color manage this process, I created an ICC profile of the imaging condition for each scan. Although I minimize any daylight in the scanning studio I do believe that each scan is conditioned on the placement of the lights during scanning. I use the MacBeth color checker target and Monaco Profiler Pro to create the input ICC profile for the overhead scanner. Each scan is optimized to balance "neutral" using the ColorChecker target as well as set the white and black points. The ICC profile is produced of this condition. The image when brought into Photoshop is converted to the Adobe RGB working space.

The images are cropped and carefully examined at "actual pixels view" for any stray reflections or for any slight distractions such as brush hairs that may have been trapped in the oil paint that have a tendency to produce shadow/refletion combinations that are carefully "cloned" out. The image files are then given their final unsharpmasking which is usually limited to .7 or .8 pixel width, from 100% to 200% without any smoothing - of course previewed at "actual pixels".

Then the image is soft proofed with the ICC profile I created for ConeColor K3 Vivid inks and Somerset for Cone paper. I eventually made an ICC profile for K3 Vivid inks in both the 7800 as well as for the 7880. A proof is printed through this same ICC profile and pinned to the wall for viewing and comparison to the painting and display. I choose to calibrate my Eizo display to match the 5000k of the viewing light. ColorMunki allows me to calibrate the display to the same brightness of the viewing wall adjacent to the display. The feature for this allows me actually point the munki at the display wall and it adjusts the Eizo's brightness accordingly. At this point I am not imaging in the darkened imaging room, but using the imaging station I have in the brighter display studio. My goal is to be able to image in a bright room and to be able to stand back and see identical results on the display and the proof hanging next to the display. I can't do this with the Sony Artisan, but can easily with the Eizo. The Eizos are not your average LCD by any means.

The painting is then set next to the display with the proof just above it. Now I can make any color corrections necessary so that I match the display to the painting. With this type of color management workflow, what I see on my display exactly matches the printed proof. Therefore, any corrections I make to the image in Photoshop while being softproofed will result in matching the painting. I usually make an exact match within 2-4 proofings. Artists can choose pigments and colorants which are simply not reproduceable with contemporary inkjet. However, with a painter like Wolf Kahn, whose work is about subtlety the process can be extensive. Wolf paints that world of color that exists between the dust of butterfly wings and the fuzz on peaches.

I used to make original serigraphs and etchings with Wolf in the 1980s. His color relationships are the most complex of any artist I have ever worked with. In those days I was mixing inks by hand and we were printing up to 15 hand made separations. When I look for "meaning" in a Wolf Kahn print, I look for the relationships between adjacent colors. Usually there are these magnificent areas of tonal complexity which are more felt than seen. These become the important areas that eventually leave behind the challenge of matching the intensity of the purple trees. The challenge of working with a Wolf Kahn original is matching the intent of the impression of the landscape. Wolf has been the single-most influential contemporary painter of landscape since the 1960s.

I wanted to share my process with you because at once you know me as the company which tries to sell you ConeColor inks. But my history as a digital printmaker goes back to 1984 and as a traditional printmaker goes back to 1980 with the founding of Cone Editions Press. We are two companies here in East Topsham, Vermont. Cone Editions is a printmaking studio and Vermont PhotoInkjet is a developer of inkjet supplies. It's a synergistic relationship and one that I believe is responsible for the success of each, and has helped nourish other studios since I became a supplier to them in 1993.

It is this same relationship which allows me to partner with your own studio. We are not your average inkjet supply house. We actually practice what we preach, and use what we sell, and we know how to help you in the many aspects of what it means to be a print studio.

Let us know how we can help you.

Thanks and best regards,

Jon Cone

President

InkjetMall

Master Printer

Cone Editions Press