Giclee Printing Services

Posted by Kevin Vaughan September 2018 on TAVCO's blog

Lots of people would love to display fine art in their home, but artwork can be really expensive. Luckily, another alternative is to get a high-quality reproduction of a painting called a giclee. Throughout Austin and Central Texas, artists and buyers alike continue to rely on the top-notch giclee printing services of Austin Art & Frame. See how they do it and learn about their business in our exclusive TAVCO Partner Profile.

The Austin Art & Frame Company Journey

Dan Radin is the founder and owner of Austin Art & Frame. "It started in 1994, so it has been in business 25 years. I wanted to combine my interests and experience in photography, software development, art, printing, and framing. My dad owned and ran L.M. Castner Co., a high-quality hand-made picture frame manufacturing company, for over 50 years. I worked for him through high school and some of college,” explains Dan. He also sites his Dad as a primary mentor and source of inspiration since he was an artist and business owner.

In 2007, Dan purchased Art USA and in 2012, he renamed the company Austin Art & Frame and relocated it from its original location on Walsh Tarleton to its current location on Bee Cave Rd in the Mira Vista Shopping Center. They operate as a Fine Art Gallery, Custom Framing Shop, and provider of Art Imaging and Giclee Printing Services. Dan explains the core benefit they offer their client base. "We provide a one-stop place for art, printing, framing, pickup/delivery, repairs, and installation."

In addition to Dan, there are two other full-time employees and one part-time employee. Together they serve a wide-variety of home owners, interior designers, business owners, artists, and photographers throughout Central Texas and beyond.

Regarding printing technology, Austin Art & Frame recently upgraded their legacy Epson 7900 large format printer for a new Canon PRO 4000. "The Canon Pro 4000 is much better in quality, speed, and reliability than our prior Epson 7900." According to Dan, this was an easy transition through TAVCO, "We really appreciated the on-site delivery and installation and ability to get answers to some questions via email.” Likewise, he also connected with higher levels of customer support within Canon to quickly dial in the advanced features that he needed with the included Canon Print Studio PRO software plugin for Photoshop.

The Canon PRO Series printers host 11-colors and an unique Chroma Optimizer which "clear coats" images printed on glossy media for superior results.

Get started with Giclee Printing at Austin Art and Frame

Before a giclee can be printed, there are some imaging steps that have to happen first. According to Dan, "We image a photograph or work of art of any size using hi-resolution photography to accurately capture detail and color. We then proof the resulting image on the Canon Pro-4000. We then fine-tune brightness, saturation, contrast, and color among other attributes to match the original. This hi-res image is then provided to the customer along with lower resolution versions for their phone, social media, submissions to exhibits, and websites. We use the hi-res version for doing the giclee print and save the image for making future prints on demand for the customer."

Have questions? Reach out to Dan or one of his on-staff giclee specialists. They are always happy to help.