What is an IRIS Print?
IRIS prints are made on printers manufactured by IRIS Graphics of Bedford, Massachusetts.
IRIS Graphics is a leading supplier of the ink-jet printers used in the graphic arts
industry. IRIS images debuted as a fine arts reproduction medium about six years ago.
Previously, IRIS printers had been used in the graphics arts field for proofing and
commercial design projects. IRIS prints have more recently been called Giclée prints
which is a French word meaning "to spray forcefully". The idea of an ink being
sprayed on a paper or canvas is such that any ink jet printer might be used to make a
"Giclée print" but most art dealers assume today that a Giclée print has been
made on an IRIS printer and IRIS Graphics has actually trade marked the name IRIS
Giclée®. Properly made IRIS prints are beautiful and superior to other ink jet
prints in both image permanence and tonal quality.
There are two basic steps in the IRIS printing process. First, a digital image of an
original art work is created, either by scanning a photographic transparency or negative
of the original or by using a high-resolution digital camera to make a record of the
original art. The digital image is manipulated on a computer to achieve the desired
results. The goal may be to create a very faithful reproduction of the original art or to
change the appearance in a way that is chosen by the artist. Of course, the same digital
imaging process can be used to reproduce an image which is created by an artist from
scratch directly on a computer. The second step is the actual printing of the image on the
IRIS printer. A high quality fine arts paper or other special substrate is wrapped around
a drum on the printer. The computer controlled printer sprays very tiny droplets of cyan,
magenta, yellow, and black inks at the paper with amazing precision.Four million drops per
second are applied to the substrate from the color streams of high-pressure inks. Each
droplet of ink is about the size of a red blood cell. Multiple droplets are overlaid to
create a beautiful continuous tone reproduction, rather than the coarser dot pattern
associated with offset lithographs. IRIS fine art prints have a two-fold advantage. When
properly made, they offer exquisite image quality. Also, the artist can have prints on
demand, keeping initial project costs lower than other traditional reproduction processes
while completing a limited edition of prints gradually as the prints are sold.
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