Art Print Glossary and Definitions

Know What You're Buying

What's in a name? Know what you're buying before you check out.

Please be aware that some of our prints have a border which may include the artist's name, the title of the picture and other wording. The 'paper size' dimensions (shown beneath each image) refer to the full print, including any border. The 'image size' dimensions refer to the image alone.

Original - art print done by the artist's own fair hand, usually one-of-a-kind.

Reproduction Print - A copy or facsimile of an original work: that is, not the real McCoy. Reproductions can be limited, which means they are part of a finite series, or they can be open-ended which means there's no limit to the number that can be produced.

Reproduction Photograph - A copy or facsimile of a photograph: that is, not a print from the original negative.

Poster - An image produced mainly for advertising purposes, such as a movie or theatre poster.

Cast Limestone or Sandstone Statue - A cold-cast process for sculpture that combines finely ground limestone or sandstone with a bonding resin in a 50:50 ratio.

Limited Edition Print - A limited series of impressions of a given image, usually fewer than 300, each signed and numbered by the artist.

Silkscreen print - Using a thin coating of wax, the artist creates an image on a fine mesh screen, often made of silk. When ink is forced though the screen, it creates an impression of the original image on paper or fabric.

Etching - Using a special needle, the artist draws onto a metal plate coated with wax. When the plate is submerged in an acid bath, the chemical bites through the metal where the wax has been removed, leaving an impression of the artist's drawing. Once the plate is cleaned of wax, the artist rolls ink onto it, then uses it to make impressions on paper.

Hand-coloured Restrike Engraving - Prints made by trained printmakers using original Victorian plates, then hand-painted by skilled watercolourists.

Lithograph - Using a greasy crayon, the artist first draws an image on a stone, metal or plastic plate, then wets this plate with water. When ink is applied to the wet plate, it clings to the crayon marks and rolls off the unmarked surfaces, creating an impression of the original drawing when pressed on paper. For coloured lithographs, separate plates are prepared for each colour.

Goutelette Print - Printed onto the highest quality archival substrates and using only very specialised inks. Gouttelette prints have the remarkable colour saturation and continuous tone characteristics one would expect of an original painting. In fact, with an apparent visual resolution of over 1800 dpi (dots per inch), distinguishing a gouttelette from an original can be very difficult, even to the expert eye. Gouttelettes are generally printed onto acid-free calcium carbonate-buffered archival watercolour paper. On light-fastness, the ink and paper combinations generally used meet the standards of both the Fine Art Trade Guild's blue wool scale and those of Wilhelm Imaging Research in America.