TMX-100 4x5 negative

TMX-100 4x5 scanned positive

Digital Pigment print

Detail of the above image - (orange block)

Detail if an image printed on German Etching Paper,
click to enlarge.

What is a digital pigment print?

Digital pigment printing is the current state of the art in Black & White and color fine-art printing. With four tones of archival carbon-based pigment, B&W prints are both able to render a wider range of grays than traditional silver printing and longevity of over 100 years. These prints have been compared to platinum and palladium printing, in that the printing process places pigment on and somewhat in the fiber of the paper base and produces an image with a velvety black, and a long, even tone from black to paper white. With rich blacks and gentle highlights many of our customers comment to us they have never seen such beautiful prints before!

Digital Pigment Editions uses two heavy weight papers optimized for digital output. Hanemühle Photo Rag (smooth, bright white surface,) and Hanemühle German Etching paper (lightly textured, warm tone surface.) Both are mould-made, 100% cotton rag, acid free, and archival to 100+ years with carbon pigment printing. We also use a medium weight paper with a toothy texture for some images, Hanemühle William Turner, at 190 gms. This paper is a rough version of Photo Rag and produces an excellent deckled edge for float mounted images.

Digital pigment printing uses the power today's technological advances in digital imaging to free the artist from a ' darkroom', and give the artist a digital 'lightroom' in which high resolution images are scanned, corrected, spotted and adjusted using a a variety of techniques to achieve a final image that conveys an artistic vision of the original scene, or an inner visualization of a moment in time.

To create the final print, a continuous ink customized digital printer sprays very fine particles of pure carbon pigment in a 'museum' quality black pigment ink plus, for B&W, three additional gray density (quadtone) pigment inks onto coated, archival heavyweight fine-art paper. This produces a richness and depth of tone not possible on traditional photographic silver halide or bromide papers. The resulting image is comparable to a platinum or palladium image in intensity, detail and lightfastness. We use Jon Cone's Selenium Tone PiezoTone pigment inks. These carbon pigment inks are estimated at 100 plus years without noticeable fading.

Digital pigment printing is a relatively new photographic process (developed in the early 1980s). In the past few years, major breakthroughs have been made in the durability of the prints. All digital pigment (dp) prints are designed to have the highest archival potential possible: through the use of acid-free 100% cotton rag papers and archival pigments, and processing.

Digital Pigment Editions Galleries:

Gold Towns—Current Exhibit

Ancient Lands—To Be Announced

The Coast—To Be Announced

High Sierras—To Be Announced