Visualization in the Future?

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Bandsaw

MGF, Master Grumble Framer
Joined
Feb 17, 2006
Posts
973
As I was doing a design in IF the other day I wondered if a day will come when we won't have any corner samples in our galleries - just computers and screens.

A few weeks ago I was doing a job for an artist that wanted a very specific mat color based on a pigment in his art. There was no such mat. I scanned a part of his mat, picked the color out of the art in Photoshop, printed a test sheet of plus/minus colors and densities, chose the correct one and printed a sheet of the exact color he wanted on my wide format printer which was then drymounted to ragboard and the mat was cut.

I wonder if this was the first custom printed matboard.

I suppose I could have printed directly onto a sheet of white matboard - the printer accepts matboard just fine.

Perhaps we'll print all our mat colors right from the IF screen.
 
Things to come...

Bandsaw,
When computers first came out, they predicted the demise of printed books. No need for them, everyone could just read on their small hand-held computer! Books are still here.
They predicted the end of print shops and copy shops. Yet, print places are doing better business now because of the computer age.

Strangely, everything will change, and then still remain the same.

Here's a strange thought. Imagine a frame shop with out any samples on the wall. Just printed pictures of the moulding (or images on-screen.) No finished pieces, just pictures of finished pieces. People in their homes with printouts of finished pieces on their walls. Maybe done in relief to create a 3-D effect. Or an inset screen in the wall showing the framed piece and shadow it creates. And as they stand there admiring it, they say, "Remember when they use to make these out of wood and glass?"

Thank goodness it's Friday...
 
That tale was quite a rich description of visualization taken to the extreme, Carol.

Virtual design ...virtual presentation ... virtual art on the wall.

All of this could theoretically be done from the computer with no brick and mortar.

No Cost of Goods Sold!

No labor costs!

No rent, heat , water expense!

No...NO...NO!
:faintthud:


One thing good about getting older...you probably won't be
around to see your worst fears come true.



Dave Makielski
​

​

 
Too much sci-fi

Dave,
with "no rent, no heat, no water expense" think of the money you'll save. (wink)
When metal chairs were introduced, wooden chairs should have become obsolete but they aren't. They just aren't in offices any more.
Don't worry. Framed art will still be around. It just won't look the same.

And yes, the DiVinci prints amazing designs on matboard!
 
Bandsaw said:
As I was doing a design in IF the other day I wondered if a day will come when we won't have any corner samples in our galleries - just computers and screens.

A few weeks ago I was doing a job for an artist that wanted a very specific mat color based on a pigment in his art. There was no such mat. I scanned a part of his mat, picked the color out of the art in Photoshop, printed a test sheet of plus/minus colors and densities, chose the correct one and printed a sheet of the exact color he wanted on my wide format printer which was then drymounted to ragboard and the mat was cut.

I wonder if this was the first custom printed matboard.
Click to expand...

Sorry to steal your thunder, but Wizard was doing that about 9-10 years ago.. :) Our daVinci software does that now, and it even saves ink by not printing where the holes are to be cut...

As soon as they sell a machine that can print a full sheet of any color using archival inks in under a minute for less than $1000 (and cheap inks too), then everyone will just start stocking white mat board.
 
DaVinci

WizSteve,

Does your DaVinci software have a "Ring Around" printing capability in it?

In printing something like a mat there isn't a good line of color control from scanner to printer. I haven't come across color profiles for mat boards.

In the good old days of color darkrooms a technique commonly used was to print what was called a "Ring Around". A series of small images was printed on one sheet of paper with varying densities and color balances. After processing you picked the best image and using that exposure and color filter pack you could print a good image.

I have a Ring Around set up in my computer which I use when printing matboards. I test print on an 8 x 10 board and adjust for no surprises when the final output is printed.

What are the capabilities of your DaVinci software - there is almost no information on the website. Is there a trial version of DaVinci? At one point I was going to rent it just to find out what the heck it is but i don't see a rental option any more.
 
Bandsaw, Steve will be back to answer you in a little while I am sure. I think I remember reading here on the Grumble recently that the latest version of Mat Designer will have Davinci on it as a demo, you won't be able to print with it though unless you complete the purchase for it.
 
Bandsaw said:
Does your DaVinci software have a "Ring Around" printing capability in it?
Click to expand...

Our original version of daVinci came with a utility the did just that, but we haven't updated it or included that utility in the latest version. It's my impression (and I could be wrong here) that most people printing on mats are not printing solid colors very often, if at all. And I think this is mainly due to convenience and cost of inks (i.e. it's easier and cheaper just to buy a mat).

Bandsaw said:
In printing something like a mat there isn't a good line of color control from scanner to printer. I haven't come across color profiles for mat boards.
Click to expand...

Color profiling is one of the biggest hurdles to overcome when a shop adds a wide-format printer to their lineup. The easiest way to deal with it is to just buy a color profiliing software package - you first calibrate and profile a scanner, and then use the scanner to calibrate the output of the printer. That alone will get you pretty darn close.

Bandsaw said:
I have a Ring Around set up in my computer which I use when printing matboards. I test print on an 8 x 10 board and adjust for no surprises when the final output is printed.
Click to expand...

One of the features in daVinci is the ability to create and print color palettes in a grid, so you can pre-print them out and have a set color choice...

Bandsaw said:
What are the capabilities of your DaVinci software - there is almost no information on the website. Is there a trial version of DaVinci? At one point I was going to rent it just to find out what the heck it is but i don't see a rental option any more.
Click to expand...

Yeah, as John said the latest MatDesigner software includes a demo of daVinci... unfortunately we don't have a download for it as the setup is rather large now, but I can certainly get a CD out to you if you'd like.

daVinci, in a nutshell, allows you to add custom solid colors or textures to a matboard, free floating clipart art, captions, and french lines / panels. The panel editor is very configurable and allows you to use our template library for shapes - so for example you can now have kobe-corner panels. You can also print palettes and corner samples. And the best part is that the software knows where the holes are so only prints where it needs to (which is especially cool on lower layers as it only needs to print the reveals and not the whole mat).
 
Not nearly as high tech as what we're discussing, but years ago when the first Canon Color Laser Copiers came out we had a framing customer who wanted to match a color in his art work and no mat colors came close. We had a top notch technician on the copier in our digital imaging center who did a fairly decent job of matching the color and we outputted onto 1 ply Strathmore. After mounting the paper onto rag board and cutting the mat it produced excellent results and the customer was quite happy.

Fortunately this was a small piece because the CLC's output was limited to slightly less than 11 X 17.

We did this many times and were able to use the step and repeat function to put designs on mat boards too. Recently I did one where a gentleman brought in one of the old post office boxes the post office just sold. I took the box to OfficeMax since I don't have a CLC anymore and did the same treatment. The shadowbox containing the PO box had a mounting board with a repeated pattern of the box only at about 75% scale. The box was slightly recessed into the mount board and we used museum glass for glazing ...came out pretty cool.

Dave Makielski
 
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