Finao Image Printing

A photographer's longterm success begins with the best possible print quality.

Finao provides professional album printing, lab prints, mounting, and finishing options that will satisfy your most discerning customer. We offer an extended range of sizes, including custom sizes.

We print on a selection of professional photographic and fine art papers from industry-leading companies like Fuji, Kodak, Hahnemühle, and Moab. Finao uses only portrait-grade photographic paper, which is a heavier weight and much preferable to standard album-grade paper. We never press-print anything. Ever. Our goal is to marry your images and our handmade albums into lifetime pieces of art.

We value and emphasize consistency in our printing. Generally speaking, you only need a quality monitor and a good calibration device (e.g., Spyder, X-Rite, or similar brand) for great results. We recommend requesting test prints before you place your first album order so that you have a baseline for our products.

Finao is a print-to-bind company. To offer handmade products at reasonable prices and to guarantee the highest quality albums in a desirable time frame, we do not accept bind-only album orders. We offer a variety of print options, ICC profiles, and in-house test prints to ensure you are satisfied with your albums.

Finao ICC Profile

You do not need an ICC profile to work with Finao. Please, do not attempt to use this profile if you are unfamiliar with how to install them or their correct use. Before using this file, be aware that we do not offer any support for its use. Our customer service reps are not trained to assist you with the installation, or any troubleshooting. If you wish to proceed you can download the file from the bottom of this page.

C-Type vs. Giclée Prints – Which are Your Best Choice?

C-Type and Giclée prints are two very different printing processes, one is a digital photographic print, while the other is an inkjet print.

Photographic C-Type Printing

A digital C-Type is a traditional photographic print created with chemistry and light sensitivity but made from a digital file rather than a negative. Digital C-Types are created by exposing the paper using digital technology and lasers or LEDs rather than a bulb and traditional analog darkroom techniques. The second part of the traditional process is much the same; we process the paper in a photographic developer, followed by fixative before being washed to remove the processing chemicals.

C-Type prints are ideal for client products and exhibition printing as they are the perfect all-purpose paper type, giving both excellent color rendition and crisp black and white. They are high-quality but more economical for application in albums. All our C-Type prints are produced on laser printers, providing optimum results for your images for color accuracy, light fastness, and archival quality.

We create our C-Type prints with the best digital labs from Noritsu and Polielettronica.

Giclée Inkjet Printing

A giclée print is quite different, created by a digital printing process that applies pigment-based inks to fine-art paper, achieving prints of superior archival quality, light fastness, and stability. The word giclée ("g-clay"), is derived from the French verb gicler meaning "to squirt or spray".

Some consider this a superior process because it is capable of printing a broader color spectrum, lending to smoother transitions between gradients. Giclée printing allows for extraordinarily intricate color management of your images, as well as incredibly sharp detail, especially when hitting color gamuts.

Our papers have a range of finishes, from flat matte to gloss and Baryta. We source archival papers from Hahnemühle and Moab, who thoroughly test their products for color, density, and tone.

When combined with these professional fine-art papers, giclée printing creates a qualitatively different image. The papers have creamier, luxurious whites, and varying degrees of watercolor texture that add depth and interest. The effect is more elegant, with a museum-worthy visual effect.

We create our giclée prints using a state-of-the-art Canon and Epson large format printers that utilize 11-color and 10-color pigment ink sets and a Chroma Optimizer.

Finao's C-Type Papers

Fuji Lustre Fujicolor Crystal Archive Professional Super Type PD Lustre is the go-to paper for many of our customers. This silver halide color paper is optimized for digital lab printing. It yields stable, high image quality prints that make it an excellent choice for professional wedding, portrait, or commercial photography. The realistic color reproduction results in accurate and vibrant colors with a "true-to-life" look. Superb color image stability makes it Fujifilm's longest lasting paper yet.

Features:

• A high D-max and wide tonal range, producing high image quality prints with a rich textural quality
• Accurate and vibrant color reproduction with an expanded range and high saturation
• Pure, cleaner whites and better highlights
• Ideal gradation balance delivering neutral and deep blacks and unbiased grays over the entire density range
• Excellent skin tone reproduction that captures the diversity of skin tones faithfully
• A thicker, more durable base paper
• Excellent latent image stability for uniform and consistent print quality
• Clearer, more distinct images, and sharper text quality.

This paper has state-of-the-art image stability in terms of color balance and dye fade. It has a durability rating of 100 years before noticeable fading in typical home display, over 200 years before noticeable fading in dark storage, and about 20 months in high-intensity commercial reflection display under 5000 lux.

Features:

• Increased color gamut for strong, vibrant colors, especially greens, blues, yellows, and cyan.
• Accurate skin tones
• Neutral tone scale—from highlights to shadows
• Improved D-min for clean-looking whites
• Improved D-max capability for bold, rich blacks
• Clean, sharp text reproduction
• Wide application, especially for weddings, portraits, and commercial use.

Fuji Deep Matte Fujicolor Crystal Archive Professional Deep Matte Velvet Paper delivers beauty and tremendous impact. This lustreless silver halide paper was designed specifically for digital fine art prints; its unique deep-matte surface provides elegant color reproduction with subtlety and warmth. It has a wonderfully creamy texture with pure, clean whites and works well with low-contrast images. High color saturation and excellent image stability ensure accurate color reproduction and long-lasting archival-quality prints.

This paper has a unique, smooth surface design that includes a fingerprint protection layer to make handling easier. The diffuse reflecting surface makes for exquisite display even under high lighting conditions as the deep-matte quality will minimize the reflection.

Features:

• The unique deep-matte surface creates an impressive display image with minimal reflection
• Rich, accurate color reproduction range with high saturation
• Pure whites, clearer, more distinct print images, and sharper text quality
• The surface has strong fingerprint resistance before and after processing
• Highest level of silver halide image stability
• Ideally suited for wedding photography and portraiture

Its professional emulsion set provides extreme sharpness, brightness, and color saturation. The increased color gamut results in intense, bright colors, especially vibrant greens, blues, yellows, and cyan. Excellent D-Min and improved D-Max produce crisp, clean whites and bold, rich blacks. Black-and-white images have a dramatic impact and excellent contrast.

The proprietary laminate layers also increase the strength and tear resistance of your prints. It is rated for 100 years in typical home display, 200 years in dark storage, or 20 months for high-intensity commercial reflection display under 5000 lux.

Features:

• Distinctive, eye-catching, glossy finish with a chrome-metallic appearance
• Intense, bright colors, rich blacks, and crisp whites
• Accurate skin tone reproduction
• Creates exceptionally crisp, clean and precise type and graphic reproduction
• State-of-the-art image stability
• Excellent longevity and durability
• Ideal for drawing attention to a subject

Giclée Fine Art Papers

Hahnemühle German Etching 100% alpha-cellulose, single-sided, 310 gsm, 19.6 mil/0.5 mm, acid and lignin-free, matte finish, 92% brightness, natural white with no optical brighteners.

Hahnemühle German Etching has an attractive warm white shade and is our most popular fine art paper for all applications and products. This traditional mold-made copperplate printing paper meets the highest industry standards regarding density, color gamut, color graduation, and image sharpness while preserving the special touch and feel of genuine art paper.

This heavyweight etching paper has a fine, smooth surface texture characterized by a velvety tactile feel and clearly defined felt structure. A special matte surface coating promotes excellent image sharpness, and optimal color gradation while still offering the aesthetic qualities of traditional fine art papers. This combination of surface texture and coating promotes the superb reproduction of the color, deep blacks, and optimum contrasts of your highly detailed images.

German Etching is water-resistant and calcium carbonate buffered to ensure true archival longevity and meets the most exacting museum requirements for the highest age resistance.

MOAB Entrada Rag Natural 300 100% cotton rag, double-sided, 300 gsm, 22.5 mil/0.57 mm, acid and lignin-free, matte finish, 84% brightness, natural white with no optical brighteners.

Choose Moab Entrada Rag for prints with vivid colors and high sharpness on a truly matte surface with traditional fine-art paper feel. The Entrada Rag has an expanded color gamut, natural contrast, and high ink load. It is our creamiest fine art paper with a natural warm tone, yet maintains a surprisingly wide tonal range and high dMax for a matte 100% cotton paper. This award-winning fine art paper has superb ink handling and sharpness. The smooth, matte surface has a subtle texture that enhances your image without being distracting.

This paper is water-resistant and calcium carbonate buffered to ensure true archival longevity. These prints will last for generations.

Hahnemühle Photo Rag Metallic 100% cotton rag baryta, single-sided, 340 gsm, 18.5 mil/0.47 mm, acid and lignin-free, high-gloss metallic finish, 88% brightness, natural white with no optical brighteners.

Hahnemühle Photo Rag Metallic is one of the most beautiful fine-art papers we have seen. It blends the characteristic surface structure and sumptuous feel of a 100% cotton rag baryta paper with the dynamic appearance of a metallic media. Light reflection from the silvery high-gloss metallic finish is enhanced by the tooth of the paper texture, adding an almost three-dimensional appearance.

It has a barium sulfate coating that yields immense color depth and detail with a little gloss that ensures bold colors, deep blacks, and the perfect reproduction of color and detail. This paper has a sophistication that makes it the ideal choice for images with metallic or other striking visual elements. Use it to enhance reflections, ice, and glass, architecture, and landscape shots, or black and white photographs with high-contrast tones.

Photo Rag Metallic is water-resistant and calcium carbonate buffered to ensure true archival longevity. It meets the most exacting requirements in terms of age resistance.