Studio standards
What a print is made of matters more than what it's called.
“Fine-art print” is a phrase anyone can print on a box. Here's what it means in our shop specifically: the inks, the paper, the color workflow, how long it honestly lasts, and how it reaches your door.
The spec sheet.
| Paper | Archival matte poster paper, heavyweight fine-art stock |
|---|---|
| Inks | Archival pigment inks — not dye-based |
| Color workflow | Color-managed from the studio master file to the press |
| Sizes | 12×18″ · 18×24″ · 24×36″ |
| Framing | Natural, black, or white — fitted, ready to hang |
| Canvas | Gallery wrap, image mirrored around the bars, 1.35× paper price |
| Fade resistance | Decades indoors with indirect light (honest answer below) |
| Packaging | Flat mailer (12×18″) or rigid tube (larger sizes) |
| Production | Made to order in the USA — see Shipping for timing |
| On the artwork | No logos, no watermarks, no studio mark — ever |
Three decisions we don't compromise on.
Pigment inks, not dye
Pigment particles sit in the paper coating and resist UV and humidity far better than dye inks, which dissolve into the fiber and fade faster. Pigment is the standard for work meant to stay on a wall for years — it's what museums use for their own reproductions, and it's the only ink we print with.
Heavyweight matte paper
The poster stock is thick enough to lie flat in a frame without rippling, with a smooth matte surface that kills glare and lets color carry the piece. Matte is a deliberate choice: glossy paper shows fingerprints, reflections, and every imperfection in the wall behind it. Matte just shows the art.
Color-managed files
Every design in the vault exists as a studio master file, checked on a calibrated display before it ever reaches the print queue. What you see in the product photos is the file the press receives — no muddy re-exports, no compression artifacts, no surprises in the deep tones.
We'd rather tell you a print lasts decades and mean it than promise forever and shrug later.
Honest answers, no asterisks.
How long will it actually last?
Indoors, out of direct sunlight, expect the print to hold its color for decades — pigment-on-archival-paper combinations are routinely rated well past 50 years under normal room conditions. What shortens that is direct sun, high humidity, and smoke. Hang it like you'd hang anything you want to keep: indirect light, dry room.
Will the colors match my screen?
Very close, but not pixel-perfect — screens are backlit and prints are reflective, so a print always reads slightly deeper than the same file on a phone. We manage color from the master file so what shifts is the medium, not the art. If a piece arrives looking genuinely wrong, that's a defect, and our damage-replacement policy covers it.
What's the canvas like up close?
A gallery-wrapped canvas print is stretched by hand over wooden stretcher bars, with the image mirrored around the edges so the composition continues cleanly on the sides. No frame needed. The surface has a soft weave texture and slightly deeper saturation than paper — closer to a painting than a poster, at 1.35× the paper price.
How is it packed?
12×18″ prints ship flat between rigid boards in a stay-flat mailer. 18×24″ and 24×36″ prints ship rolled in a heavy-duty tube — the paper relaxes flat overnight under a few books. Canvas and framed pieces ship boxed with corner protection. If the carrier bends it anyway, photograph the box and we replace the print. Thirty days, no argument.
Studio law
Nothing between you and the art.
No logo, watermark, or studio mark is ever printed on wall art. The file that ships is the composition, edge to edge, the way it was finished. Phone cases, pillows, tapestries, and totes may carry a small studio mark — those are objects; a print is a piece of art.
Designs that carry a visible mark are flagged in the vault and held out of the print catalog entirely until the artwork is clean.
See the difference in person