Light, heat and moisture are the main destructive forces that can destroy a giclée print and reduce its longevity.
We have conquered all three of them!

Ultraviolet and visible light fade the primary colors (CMYK) in a print, usually unevenly as bright colors fade more quickly. The uneven fading results in a total hue shift of the prints.

Our high tech PicoGrain™ pigmented ink set (CMYKLcLm) guarantees against fading in an indoor environment for over 100 years.

All art materials such as canvas and watercolor papers hold a certain amount of moisture depending on the environment in which they are stored or displayed. Printing on such material with non-waterproof inks such as most inkjet inks requires a top coating, sealant or lamination to make the prints moisture resistant.

When these prints are subjected to heat, such as direct sunlight, the heat of a closed car, a non-airconditioned room or a laminating machine, the trapped moisture in the printed material turns into steam and reactivates the inks causing a color shift.

In some cases, the heat causes the surface of the inkjet emulsion and protective coating to crack.

Our pigmented inks are heat-tolerant and, combined with our specially coated media, produce heat resistant giclée prints. You can even use hot lamination on our giclées with no color shifting or surface cracking.

All inkjet and giclée prints are made by placing tiny dots of primary colors (CMYK) with a certain amount of white spacing between them. This white spacing (the background color of the paper or canvas) is a part of the calculation of the colors.

Humidity or moisture can reactivates the ink dots, as it does with ALL dye-based giclée prints, and the dots expand. This reduces or even eliminates the white spacing which, in turn, results in a total color shift in a print. This problem is common in humid areas and coastal locations with our competitor's prints.

Our pigmented inks are waterproof and, when printed on our specially coated waterproof canvas and watercolor papers, the printed giclée becomes waterproof and even more durable than the original. Our giclées DO NOT require a top coating or a sealant to be waterproof.

You can display them on any indoor wall in any high humidity environment with total confidence.

Rockney Alavi
Chief Engineer
Computer & Control Solutions, Inc.