Image Capture

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The most important part of art reproduction is capturing the original material, colour, texture, detail, tonal range, and quality... all of these are essential to a faithful copy of the original. This is our priority.

Original artwork up to 12 feet wide can be photographed in our studio. Airbrush, acrylic, chalk, charcoal, coloured pencil, conte, crayon, gouache, graphite, marker, oil paint, pastel, pen and ink, pencil, sand, watercolour, or tempera on materials such as canvas, paper, board, fabric, glass, metal, and wood - any kind of original can be photographed using large format scanning cameras or high resolution digital sensors at up to 500 pixels per inch.

Careful attention to colour, tone, and detail is followed by a final proof for client approval. Image files are then catalogued and held in our archive with a copy given to the client for safekeeping.

Colour Management

Most artists are highly attuned to colour, tone, form, and texture, all essential elements of the creation of any work. Colour management is central to our process, from the image capture to print making. Some artists wish to have the prints as faithful to the original as possible, while others require management and manipulation to create the final effect desired.

All this is done simply and effectively, with as much input from the client as they require, ensuring an end product that is accurately repeatable. 

Giclée Printing

This process was developed in the late 1980s and has become the best known method of short run print production. The Giclee printing process involves spraying microscopic dots of pigment-based ink onto high quality substrates. The image is colour corrected, and the digital information from the image file is carefully profiled to the type of paper or surface on which the image is then printed, to ensure the closest match to the original.

We print with top quality pigment inks onto pure cotton rag, pH neutral papers by Permajet and Hahnemuhle. This means that our prints have superior lightfastness and archival stability. 

Cotton-based paper is one of the best media for giclée printing. This paper can transform a photograph into a beautiful, delicate, and soft image that adds an extra dimension, making it perfect for everything from art prints for exhibitions to portfolios.

Greetings Cards

Gone are the days where greetings cards had to be produced in quantity. With medium format digital presses, we can now produce print runs of 25 copies or less. Much of our work is produced 'on demand,' so that clients have to keep as little stock as possible. This means that valuable liquidity is not tied up in piles of products that may take a while to sell.

All our cards are laser-printed onto 350-360 micron boards which give a good rigid product that will stand nicely. The same care and attention goes into these as goes into our limited edition prints, so that the images will colour-match across your range of products.

Cards can be produced flat or folded, with or without envelopes, and printed on one or both sides.

Books

Kismet have been involved in book production for some 30 years; and, in that time have built an enviable resource of skill, information, and contacts through the trade.

Many artists now self-publish their work and we can help at every step of the way, from artwork preparation, typesetting, layout, and jacket design, correct choice of paper, through printing and binding. We work with four carefully chosen printers in the UK and overseas, selected for their craftsmanship and reliability. Alongside these, we have binders and finishers who can deal with anything from the restoration of an atique tome to a 25,000 run of a casebound volume.

Artwork and Design

Design, as in any part of a creative process, is subjective. We are most often asked to either produce something to a brief, or to just manufacture what the client gives us. In either case, our experience will help to avoid common pitfalls and save unnecessary expense.

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Whether you are producing gallery prints, cards, books, or any other form of printed material, we can help with this process. We can facilitate the production of what you have already put together, we can put everything together for you, or show you how to do it yourself. We regularly train operators in the use of layout and image manipulation software like InDesign, QuarkXpress, Photoshop, and Adobe Lightroom. 

Litho Printing

One major advantage of the lithographic process is that the soft rubber surface of the offset blanket prints equally well on a wide variety of paper surfaces and materials. Lithographic printing is easily recognised by its smooth tones, as well as by the lack of any impression into the paper, which is characteristic of letterpress printing. 

Lithography has equipment for short, medium, and long press runs. Sheet-fed and web presses are both used in lithography. Sheet-fed litho is used for printing advertising materials, books, catalogues, greeting cards, posters, packaging, direct mail inserts, and art production.

Kismet work with several printers, both in the UK and overseas, for the production of long-edition prints, cards, books, and publicity material.