Introducing inkAID Transferiez^TM Concentrate, an image transfer medium used to transfer images from inkAID Transfer Film to metal, wood, glass, plastic, paper, fabric, and even leather. It has excellent fl­exibility and chemical, water, and UV resistance. After dissolving in isopropyl alcohol, it produces a transparent solution which is coated onto the substrate and serves as the wet receiving layer in the image transfer process. When dry, the 
image can be protected with water based 
or solvent based top coatings.

Complete instructions are available on the Transferiez^TM Concentrate product page on the inkAID website. Directions for transferring images onto several specific substrates will be posted shortly. In addition, Tutorial Videos which show image transfer processes using inkAID Transferiez^TM Concentrate from start to finish will be available soon.

Image Transfers with Transferiez^TM  In this short video see the variety of substrates that you can transfer your images onto.

Get a 15% discount on your first order by using coupon code TRNFRZ.

Image Color Correction Philosophies - Which Should You Use?

One says you should trust what you see on your display. As photographers, we are generally visual people, so color correcting based on what we actually see on our display seems very intuitive and reasonable. We see a colorcast or lack of contrast in the image on the display and then we make adjustments until the colorcast is removed and contrast is corrected. This should be a good strategy, as long as you have taken some important steps: set up a good working environment that includes subdued, indirect, and consistent lighting, neutral walls, and a hood around our graphics quality display; use a middle gray background for your desktop and imaging applications; calibrate your display to a reasonable luminance (80– 120 cd/ m2) and an appropriate white point for your application; profile your monitor, so Photoshop, Lightroom, and other applications can correctly use this characterization from the operating system level of our computer to translate and display colors accurately.

The other says you should never trust what you see and that you can only trust the RGB or CMYK numbers that make up your image and correct based on this, more objective, information. By this method, there are target values for white, black, neutrals, and skin tones within an image, so overall adjustments are made to bring the values of the image to the specific aims. The main arguments on the limitations of visual color correcting should be familiar to you: our visual system and color judgment are too variable and subjective, and our displays are not of high enough gamut and quality to accurately show how the image will look on the printed page.

What’s a good compromise? Use the best of both philosophies. Trust what you see on your display, within limits, and use the numbers to examine your images and verify what you’re seeing. However, the trust in your display will be increased by doing the following things: setting up as good a viewing environment as possible; using a graphics quality display; and calibrating and profiling your display, while remembering your visual limitations and the limits of your display.

Tom P. Ashe. Color Management & Quality Output: Working with Color from Camera to Display to Print. Focal Press, 2014. 

Coming Soon! A new Transfer Medium product from inkAID. Transfer your images from inkAID Transfer Film to metal, wood, plastic, and almost any paper. It dries clear and has excellent flexibility and resistance to UV light.

Two Awesome Ink Jet

Workshops At Gary Wornell

Studios in Rhiihimaki, Finland 
   

4 Day Creative Digital Printing
Workshop

June 12 - 15 and June 26 - 29, 2014

Contact Gary Wornell

For basic, intermediate and advanced level students familiar with medium A3+ desktop and wide format inkjet printers.

These workshops open the doors to inkjet printing on a wide variety of media. They encourage the use of alternative printing methods and give the student adequate time to complete complex processes from start to finish. This is a creative course with an emphasis on creativity.

By learning the technical possibilities and limitations of inkjet printers, the student will quickly be able to create stunning prints on unusual materials.

Course outline:

The course will give the student advanced training on operating Epson Medium and Wide Format printers including settings for various media and print quality.

The course will begin with understanding color; the calibration of monitors including your own laptops, working with and creating custom profiles for a wide range of hand coated and factory coated media.

The student will learn how to adjust special settings for the printers to maximize the quality by adjusting inkjet focus, platen gap and media feed based on media thickness and ink absorption.

The course will include the preparation of inkjet pre-coatings on a variety of alternative media including very thin Japanese papers, fine art papers, synthetic materials and metal sheet.

Create your own inkjet coatings from standard art materials as well as use the ready made coatings of inkAid.

Learn how to make transfers on wood or print edge to edge on deckled edge papers and how to print an album (such as a wedding album) on both sides of double sided media.

Learn to print right from Photoshop and Lightroom, or use sophisticated software that is easy to set up and use. Ever had problems with color? The printing workflow includes the use of color profiles for standard Epson Media and any new profiles created on the course by participants.

Post coating for print protection. Learn how to apply post-coats, varnishes and archival protective sprays to maximize pigment print life and durability.

Students should bring their own files for printing and any personal choices of media up to 1.8mm thick. Keep in mind that this course is intended to produce finished work, but the main purpose is to experiment and explore a wide variety of ideas and methods for production. The limited time available will become very busy with prints in the queue and the aim of the course is to inspire and encourage experiment.

The workshop fee is 360€ + ALV(VAT) 24% price includes all materials, coatings, protective sprays etc.

Participants requiring accommodation locally are advised to visit the website of Riihimäki town www.riihimaki.fi for further information.

We look forward to seeing you - WELCOME!

Workshop 

Exploring Digital Printing on Alternative Surfaces 
By KathyAnne White
July 12, 13 & 14, 2014, 9 am–4 pm

San Diego Book Arts

$225 for members

$275 nonmembers


Materials fee: $30, payable to presenter 


Free lecture July 11, 7:30 pm at the Athenaeum Music & Arts Library, 1008 Wall Street, La Jolla, CA

Register Now!

Embrace your creativity in this three-day workshop exploring the digital print process on alternative surfaces — just about anything that will fit through a direct-pass-through printer. We’ll learn not only how to construct our own surfaces, but also how to prepare ready-made surfaces such as fabric, cheesecloth, and metal mesh for printing. Your exploration of the alternative digital printing process will help you master digital printing at a new level of expertise. During the workshop we will discuss which printers to use for a variety of projects and why. For the workshop itself we will use one of the current Epson art printers.

The artwork of KathyAnne White has been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions in museums and galleries throughout the United States and abroad. Her work is in the collections of the Museum of Arts and Design, the American Folk Art Museum, the Archives of American Art of the Smithsonian Institution, and the Phoenix Airport Museum. White is the recipient of an Artists Project Grant and a Professional Development Grant from the Arizona Commission on the Arts, and an artist residency in Yosemite National Park. KathyAnne has been featured in a variety of arts magazines, including Fiber Arts, Surface, American Style, and Folk Art, and has been named a “trendsetter” in Art Business News. She writes a column for Digital Art Creation magazine, published quarterly on the Internet. Her self-published book, Digital Printing Alternative Surfaces: The Definitive Source, is available at Blurb.com. See her work at www.kathyanneart.com and www.digitalalternativesurfaces.com

What is the Alcohol Gel Image Transfer Process and how is it done?

The alcohol gel process allows you to transfer images to many different printmaking papers.  The process involves printing a reverse image onto image transfer film and then dissolving both the inkjet receptive coating and the inkjet ink on the film using the alcohol gel that has been applied to the paper. This technique produces beautifully detailed images with a unique and artistic look quite similar to the old Polaroid image transfer process. The alcohol gel process can be used on a variety of inkjet printers from desktop to wide format professional models. Image courtesy Janet Kramer (www.janetkramer.com).

Materials Needed:

-  A inkjet printed image, in reverse, on inkAID Transfer Film, using pigment based ink.

-  Arches 88 printmaking paper large enough for your image.  You can also use other unsized printmaking papers with a smooth surface. Always test small pieces first.

-  Purell alcohol gel hand sanitizer. Do not use a substitute brand of hand sanitizer as the process may not work properly.

-  Safety equipment: Waterproof gloves, Eye Protection, Respirator if sensitive to alcohol vapor.  

-  Plastic scraper (credit card or equivalent).

-  Brayer

 Instructions: 

        1. In a well ventilated, cool (< 80F), work area place the paper on a smooth, firm,  waterproof surface. Work quickly, but carefully, as the Purell Hand Sanitizer gel begins to evaporate as soon as it is applied.

        2. Wearing gloves, pour the Purell Hand Sanitizer gel onto the paper spreading it evenly with the plastic scraper. Add sufficient gel so that the paper is thoroughly wetted. Then flip the paper over and repeat on the other side. Don’t leave excess, unabsorbed, gel on the surface.

        3. Before handling the printed film, make sure your hands are clean of any remaining Purell Hand Sanitizer gel. 

        4. To place the printed image transfer film onto the paper, place it over the paper, without letting it touch the paper, and position it where you want the image to be. Then set one edge of the film down on the paper. Using the brayer, slowly place the film in contact with the surface of the paper. This method prevents air bubbles from being trapped under the film and causing defects in the image. 

        5. Once the film is in complete contact with the paper, you’ll need to lightly press it to complete the image transfer. Use the brayer to lightly press the film down onto the paper being sure to go over the entire surface of the image. Allow the film to remain on the paper for about a minute. 

        6. Carefully lift one corner of the film and visually check to see that the image been transferred. If the transfer is not complete, press the film down and wait several seconds more. A very small amount of coating and ink may remain on the film. This is normal. Practicing the technique several times will tell you how long the transfer process takes. Once the image transfer is complete, slowly pick up one corner of the film and continue removing it from the paper. 

        7. Allow the finished transfer to air dry for several hours or overnight. Don’t try to accelerate the drying process as this may damage the appearance of the image. Don’t move the imaged paper until it is completely dry. 

What’s the difference between ink jet inks that contain aqueous dyes versus aqueous pigments?

Aqueous Dye: The aqueous in aqueous dye and aqueous pigment refers to the fact that water is the main liquid vehicle for transporting the dyes and pigments to the printed page. With both types of aqueous inkjet inks, the water evaporates and leaves just the colorant. The difference in particle size means that dye-based inks have some benefits over pigment-based inks. The main benefit is that the small particle size allows light to bend around the dye molecules, which results in a color transparency that gives prints made from dye-based inks a larger color gamut than prints made from pigment-based inks. The small particle size also allows dye-based inks to more easily permeate porous surfaces and substrates and not simply lie on the surface, as is common with pigment-based inks. On the negative side, dye-based inks are more susceptible to moisture, impermanence, and fading. You do not want to get a dye-based inkjet print wet. The dyes will be more easily dissolved from prints and parts of the image could be removed.

Aqueous Pigment: For those of us making photographic or fine-art prints, we want our prints to last as long as possible, so we choose to use pigment-based inkjet printers and inks to give us better longevity and fade resistance. Despite the loss of color gamut with pigment-based inkjet output, the increased longevity for us as photographers is worth it. That being said, the ink manufacturers do things to help increase the color gamut from pigment-based inkjet prints. The first thing they do is to mill the inkjet particles to be an order of magnitude smaller and a more uniform size (100 times larger, not 1000 times larger than the dye molecules). This increases the ability of light to bend around the particles, the color transparency and, therefore, the color gamut. They also mill the pigment particles so that the larger pigment particles will not clog print head nozzles. In the case of Epson UltraChrome ink technology, Epson, also, encapsulates or coats the milled pigment particles with a resin, which allows even more transparency and color gamut from the resulting prints.

Tom P. Ashe. Color Management & Quality Output: Working with Color from Camera to Display to Print. Focal Press, 2014.

I would also add that it’s a good idea to stay with “name brand” inks instead of third party inks. They are of much better quality and for such a critical component of your work it’s not worth risking the archival integrity to save a few dollars. Jim Kedenburg