one day my prints will come

[rnojonson]

Yeah, I will have to try ImageMagic, I never think of command line apps, Though I am a gui guy! I can be taught!!

You all have no idea how hard it was to visualize my drawings in a small size, (I dream big). I sent the jpegs to the lady who is curating our local gallery. She printed them on her printer 8.5" x 11", said "nice job and they turned out great", I will pick them up tomorrow and frame them. My next big concern is fixative. I did a test print on my printer (black and white only) on photo paper, a wet finger smeared it pretty easily.

I will have to get samples of various papers and inks and experiment a little.

[rnojonson]

Yesterday I picked up the prints, they are stunning.

So I am full of questions I will ask. What kind of printer, print settings, ink and paper.
The ink is well into the semi-glossy paper like a photograph and not sitting on top ready to smudge (no fixative needed).

I am smiling ear to ear because I used Linux, GIMP and Inkscape to put out real art. This is a milestone. Thanks for all the suggestions, I am trying them all.

[Jaws]

Nice to hear all is well. Be thankful you have a printer (the lady) that's easy to work with. In the end, give us a rundown of the process you used and the final print size. I'm sure it will help others.

Ed

[rnojonson]

The basic line drawing was via a gel ball point pen on plain notebook paper.

Then the drawing was scanned into GIMP, I have a HP6210 Officejet-all in one (fax, scanner, copier, printer).
In GIMP I clean it up, tweak it, trim it, whatever.

Then I imported into Inkscape to use the Trace Bitmap to remove the background and original drawing.
You can adjust Trace to smooth the lines a little or a lot.

Now setup layers in Inkscape, adding color, Boolean cutouts, shadows. Be sure to adjust the size for the printout (8" x 10"), save often.

When done export a bitmap copy for the record, PNGs are great they do alpha channels, JPEGS do not. Then, I save as the SVG to PDF in Inkscape. Some printshops like PDFs, some JPEGs. It's easy to convert a PDF to JPEG in GIMP or ImageMagic if you have it.

Printing depends on the printer and/or what you want. On 8.5 x 11 photo paper the target print area is 8 x 10 (because that is standard mat cutout size). Size your drawing accordingly beforehand.

The printer used was a Epson Stylus NX420 all in one ($69-$99). Epson has a repute for graphics quality, good inks, proven by photographers for years. It is ironic that todays' low cost printers can do darn good photo prints.

The secret is that if you change your concept (and paper), they will print your digital creations with the same quality as photos. You need to put the right paper in the machine. The lady who did my prints used a soft gloss/instant dry paper by Print Works. Glossy photo paper is a bit much, matte may be too flat, you judge.

I'm going to purchase an Epson printer so as not to bother the lady (wife is going to buy it for me, lol).  

And I just read that Epson has been working with Ubuntu on supplying drivers, if Ubuntu then Linux in general. This is good news.

 

 

[rnojonson]

In the final chapter of this mellow-drama, the prints did come and were framed.

Final size of print was 8.5" x 11", the picture itself just under 8" x 10".
The frame I chose was 10" x 13", black plastic, very thin edge.
The white mat was a standard 11" x 14" with 8 x 10 cutout, had to trim it to fit the 10 x 13 frame.

The gallery curator doesn't like the molded in picture hanger or riveted hangers on the back of cheap frames.
So I mounted a hanging wire across the back.

The last hassles that all artist face is naming it and pricing it. The pic I posted is named "The Deep Delta Equation" (a little sci-fi). You can't be too cheap or too outrageous if you want to sell it. The occasion is the 1st annual fund raiser for the Lorain Arts Council and Art Center in our new place we dubbed "Gallery737" on April 30th. I will be there to hear the oohs, aahs and bear the ouches of family and critics. Stay tuned, will he need an agent or a bailiff? Can he get Lloyds of London to insure his hands or his printer?

I have great satisfaction that I done this with Free Linux and Open Source Software, "FLOSS ON!!"

[rnojonson]

OK, this really is the end. The prints were well received, the fund raiser a huge success. I didn't sell anything, but some art was sold. No agent or bailiff for me and Lloyds won't answer my calls. In any case my wife, kids and friends were impressed enough to tell their friends I am an "artist". That is new.

Next adventure, prints of poster size.

[rnojonson]

There is a sequel to this adventure, I'll let you in when the Lorain Arts Council post the pics on it's Facebook page.

In the mean time I am about buying a printer. The Epson Stylus NX20 is an all-in-one fax, scanner, copier, printer, at $69 it a good buy for what it puts out. For the longer stretch I looked into what photographers were using. The Epson Stylus 1400 and R1900 came into view. They can print 13 x 19. It occurred to me since I do not do photography, I didn't need such high quality and I was wincing at the price anyway. That's initial cost plus the cost of ink cartridges.

I am sticking with Epson, they have a rep among artists and photographers, then Canon, then HP. One sales guy tried to tell me all printer inks are on par with each other. Talk is cheap, printers aren't and we are doing "art" not printing business reports here. Picasso did not use house paint. I'm looking at the Epson Workforce 1100, seems to have same technology as the Stylus 1400, but not as pretty to look at. The price is right and I can pick it up at Staples with a big rebate. The WF1100 is big among folks doing iron transfers for tee-shirts and printing on vinyl, etc.

I also ran into a company called Cobra Ink (http://www.cobraink.com), they can add a refillable "endless" ink system to your printer. You can then buy designer inks in bulk.

Next, how to turn your printer into a needle-less tattoo machine using UV-inks that cure in a tanning booth.

[rnojonson]

Forget the tattoos, the Epson Workforce 1100 prints wonderful on plain matte inkjet paper, good even saturation. On glossy photo paper it prints the same but you can see the printhead bands on the print and the blacks don't print shadows well enough. On both papers it prints darker than the display monitor so I need to do some icc profile stuff. This would be easier with a Mac or MS machine, Linux takes extra research. I am searching for tweaks, print quality adjustments and testing semi-glossy and inkjet canvas papers. Then I have to draw a little better to accommodate the quirks of the printer. I haven't reached the fussiness level of photographers, but I'm beginning to understand it.

[rnojonson]

Sorry about the play by play but I want to give as much encouragement as possible.
The things I draw by hand scan well into GIMP and Inkscape and then much of the original character makes it through to the print.

I shoved some Oce-Bruning 18 mil matte inkjet canvas (like a cloth stiffened by gesso), line drawing was perfect, colors are mixed. Grays show banding due to layers of inks to get the color. The purer the color, the more vivid. Mixed or layered colors act like acrylic paint, they sit on the surface and have a tacky feel until really dry.

I shoved some Oce-Bruning 18 mil matte art paper in, eye popping results! The color soaked into the surface but didn't bleed or become tacky on the surface.

Now I strayed away from the manufacturer's name brand papers a bit but you have to experiment (it's called art). Ink is a different animal, it is matched to the printer. Third party inks tend to be lower quality unless proven otherwise.

[rnojonson]

OK OK, my prints finally came, this is the low down. Prints on my Epson Workforce 1100 are great but because it is a business machine not targeted for professional graphics, it has bells but no whistles. I printed some artwork, always prints darker than my PC screen. Was given a photo to print, it printed darker on a test so I lightened the values in Inkscape which brightened the photo's print and I printed this picture on inkjet canvas.

Just remember outcome depends on ink and the media plus how you tweak the settings. Because my printer is business class, not much info exist about using it, it is plug and play. Were it a photographer's choice there'd be icc profiles all over the galaxy. What I did discover was it is big among the iron-on image transfer crowd. They mod their printers with large volume ink supplies to do big jobs. The special ink doesn't change under heat and washes well. I also discovered I can slide 18 mil inkjet canvas and 140lb matte art board through it.

The last straw is that Linux drivers and printer support centers on CUPS and GutenPrint (GIMP-Print), neither are widely used in the professional community. Experimenting, tweaking and perfect accidents are in full play. I have had dud results and some whiz-bang strikingly good results. I am learning a lot from photographers and transferring what I can from Photoshop users (graphic artist who print). Printing is an art by it self.

[whpkalu]

Desk jet is very unique and affordable device for your home and office.you can get a lot of benefit from it.

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