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About our prints » Technical Information

We print using Epson Ultrachrome inks. This gives results that are rich in colour and will remain fade free in excess of 50 years under normal room lit conditions. The materials we print onto are specifically manufactured to work well with these inks and are pH neutral.

The respected Wilhelm Image Research Inc in the USA conducted scientific tests to predict the display permanence of colour images printed using the Epson Ultrachrome inks. Without any protection the average number of years before any fade would notice on most materials they found to be around 53 years. Under glass this increased to 79 years and under a UV filtered glass in excess of 100 years. In dark storage they predicted in excess of 200 years. Unprotected black and white images were predicted to be fade free at least 100 years on average. With glass it was predicted in excess of 120 years. The full technical results can be found here.

For many visitors to this site, all you want is the best picture from your file without wanting to get involved with the technical aspects. You can leave it to us to produce the highest quality result we can from the file or original film you supply us.

Without getting too technical, we run a fully colour managed and profiled in house system. That means our computer systems and monitors are calibrated on a regular basis to ensure visual consistency and predictability. If you are an imaging professional, you will most likely have a calibrated monitor so will appreciate how important this is. Most home PCs are not calibrated, so it is likely what is seen on a home PC differs to what we see here at ACTPIX. Often home PC and laptop monitors are set too cold (blue) in appearance. If it is possible, we advise a setting of daylight 6500k, which is how we set ours. Individual colours may not display with absolute accuracy, but generally it will be close enough to enable us to produce high quality results. Be careful to make sure your monitor is not set too dark or too light. Generally, have the contrast set to maximum before altering the brightness to a level where detail can be just seen in shadow areas without making highlights too bright.

Camera profiles on most consumer products usually default to what is known as "sRGB". You do not need to understand the technicalities about this. However, put into simple terms, it's like a generic type of average digital film. It's inherently safe and displays well on the internet. If you are a keen amateur or professional, you'll most likely set your camera to "Adobe 1998" as this profile will contain a slightly wider range of colour. For practical purposes most people would not notice the difference when images are printed and unless you fully understand about how colour profiles work, we would advise working in sRGB.

When we receive a file for printing, we will check for a colour profile, if there is not one in the file, we assume it is sRGB.

So you might be thinking I still don't know what a camera profile is! Well, in basic terms it is information that is invisibly included when you take the picture. If you modify a file in a stand alone program, sometimes the profile information is lost, which is why we assume sRGB where a profile is not present as most digital cameras use this as a default.

If you want to crop or alter your images and you do not have Photoshop or PaintShop Pro, there are several sites in the internet that offer free software. We cannot recommend or endorse any free software as such, but if you only want to crop your image, most of these will do the job. However, most digital cameras come with basic software that should allow you to do this. As mentioned earlier, it is likely that using these lower end programs will not carry over camera profiles which should not pose any problem with consumer camera files. If you have little or no experience working with image files, we strongly recommend you make a copy before editing the original file.

Please note we do not accept any responsibility or liability of any occurrence which may result by visiting any site that offers free software.

When it comes to printing, our printer is capable of printing up to 2880 dpi. This setting is finer than the eye can see and virtually imperceptible from the 1440 dpi setting. For practical descriptive purposes it is like printing in a continuous tone. Depending on the type of print we are producing, settings of 1440 dpi and 720 dpi are generally used.

We use large rolls of paper or canvas which allows almost infinite sizes within the scope of the width of the roll. There are many types of paper available to us. We print mainly onto semi-glossy, satin, Photorag 300 gsm art paper and woven Cotton Canvas. For special orders, we will print onto other types of paper or material. Our maximum roll size is 1120mm (44 inches).

For Giclée prints we print the blacks with a special matt black ink which only works with matt art papers or canvas. The result is rich deep black reproduction which is especially important where large areas of black are prominent.

Guidlines for preparing files

Crop the image and set the file size in inches or millimetres to the exact dimension you require the file to print out at. If a border is required, make sure the final printing file includes it as the file you send us is sent straight to the printer. For high quality work the resolution should be ideally set at 300 dpi. If your file contains super-fine detail and is larger than 100Mb uncompressed, you should contact us before submitting for additional instructions.

Advanced users - For most work some sharpening may improve the look of the image. As a general rule, after sizing, view the image at 50% magnification in Photoshop and adjust the amount of sharpening until the image looks good to you. Generally, a setting of 100% at 1.0 pixel radius is a safe amount to apply, but it does depend on the original image. Like most things in photography, it is down to personal taste. After you have applied sharpening, you should inspect the image at 100%, as sharpening will enhance defects like dust and scratches. You may need to retouch any defects you find to ensure they do not show in the final print. If you intend to add a border, you should apply sharpening before adding a border.

When saving the file save as JPEG level 12 or the maximum quality setting. Our website preview system will not accept TIFF or RAW type files, therefore avoid these formats.

A note about JPEG format. The JPEG format is a compressed image file format that alters the pixel data information every time a file is re-saved. A file that is saved several times over at anything less than maximum quality setting will degrade in quality. For editing images it is advisable to work in TIFF format which can be saved over and over again. Only when you are certain that you are satisfied with the image, should you save it as a JPEG to send to us.