We will not promise you a perfect color match. But wait! I thought you know what you’re doing!!! It is because we know what we’re doing that we will not promise you a perfect color match across the board. In short, some colors cannot be exactly reproduced and others can simply be very difficult to fine tune. The world of color we see and paint in doesn’t perfectly align with the world of color we print it. What we will do is tell you that we will give you a good file that is a reasonable match to your original. Does this mean that it will look drastically different from your original? No, definitely not! You don’t have to worry about your reds coming out blue. It means that there will simply be some variation in your prints relative to the original, that’s just part of the process. This distinction comes only when talking about a 100% exact match to every color in every way (which is generally not realistic).

It’s very important to note that unless you are viewing the files properly on a color calibrated monitor then what you see on your end is not going to be an accurate representation of the color and brightness of the files. As a general rule most monitors are way too bright and have too high of a contrast ratio. While this may make the monitor look good, it works in the opposite direction of achieving color accuracy. Furthermore, out of the box monitors are not profiled to a color standard. So, if you want to get the most accurate view of your files possible then you will need to properly calibrate your monitor, and this remains true no matte how nice or expensive your monitor is. If you have us further edit your files based on how they look on your monitor then know that you will be affecting the fidelity of the prints. 

Shorter answer: Yes, though if you insist on creating the file yourself please understand that we cannot be responsible if you are unhappy with aspects of the prints such as color, brightness, sharpness, etc. If we didn’t create the file then we have no way to know how faithful to the original it is. Proper color management is crucial to a faithful print so make sure you’ve taken the proper steps to ensure file accuracy. 

Longer answer: We do not suggest doing this. There are a lot of details that go into making a faithful reproduction of a painting that you are not going to have at your disposal at home. In fact, even most professional photographers will not be set up to do this as well as possible. This isn’t a comment on their skill as a photographer, it is simply that painting reproduction requires some extra steps that wouldn’t otherwise come into play with other photography. We can certainly work with files that you’ve made, and we don’t mean to suggest that they will turn out terribly. It simply means that the file creation process is crucial to final color, and if we didn’t create the files then control of that color is largely out of our hands. If you’d like to understand more about why this is then read our article on art reproduction here.

Shorter answer: Yes, though if you insist on creating the file yourself please understand that we cannot be responsible if you are unhappy with aspects of the prints such as color, brightness, sharpness, etc. If we didn’t create the file then we have no way to know how faithful to the original it is. Proper color management is crucial to a faithful print so make sure you’ve taken the proper steps to ensure file accuracy. 

Longer answer: We do not suggest doing this. There are a lot of details that go into making a faithful reproduction of a painting that you are not going to have at your disposal at home. In fact, even most professional photographers will not be set up to do this as well as possible. This isn’t a comment on their skill as a photographer, it is simply that painting reproduction requires some extra steps that wouldn’t otherwise come into play with other photography. We can certainly work with files that you’ve had another photographer make, and we don’t mean to suggest that they will turn out terribly. You may well be very happy with them. It simply means that the file creation process is crucial to final color, and if we didn’t create the files then control of that color is largely out of our hands. If you’d like to understand more about why this is then read our article on art reproduction here.

You can read more details about what we use above and on our about us page.

No! There are no prints that will last forever. While we use archival materials it is important to understand both what archival means (there’s no universal standard) and the part that you play in it (it’s a very big role). Always be cautious if someone promises you a print is going to last hundreds of years and, even if you aren’t told that, be sure you understand what is meant by being told something is archival. We offer some paper options which are archival certified and some which are not (we’re happy to discuss what that means for you). Our inks are archival inks, our canvas is archival certified, and our canvas varnish is archival. We have a post we’ve made about archival prints that we highly suggest you read. You can find that here.