Making Quality Prints From Renders

Artwork Works in Progress
1

I’ve been looking for solid (and simple) advice regarding a workflow that will take me from a render to a quality giclee print. I’ve made a few prints over the past couple of years but a) never been quite satisfied with the results and b) am aware that there is a lot to learn about colour spaces, transforms, CMYK, etc.

I’m happy to record experiments here, but would also really appreciate contributions from others - both covering challenges that folks have had and also expert advice about how to really nail this particular workflow.

What I have figured out is that simply printing what looks good on the screen, when using the filmic or Agx colour management settings, often results in muddy prints.

I’m posting this in Works in Progress as, for me, the end goal is a printed product.

2

When exporting filmic, agx and other DRTs you actually end up with an sRGB image (if you chose the sRGB display). these view transforms act on the render data where there is high dynamic range and convert it to an image displayable on a screen. So what you would have to figure out is how to convert that sRGB digital output to CMYK (or to the color space you use for printing) as faithfully as possible, because there will certainly be differences.