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if you look at the terms and conditions for downloading, as with most museums, it's clear that they want to still sell prints and "licensing" images of any art

if you look at the terms and conditions for downloading, as with most museums, it's clear that they want to still sell prints and "licensing" images of any art they own they definitely have color-calibrated images, but not for the public edit: for those unaware, in the US, reproductions/photos of public domain 2D art are themselves public domain and not subject to copyright

specialist 6y ago
We've definitely ordered prints directly. At best, they've been IKEA poster quality. Might as well just use Kinkos. There's a modest niche opportunity for a high end print shop to just handle it. White label the service so museums can reskin, rebrand, integrate. I pitched the notion to the two local shops I use (high end, preferred by artists). Build relations with some museums, create a simple e-commerce site. No interest. I get it; Print is a dying industry and the old farts are just holding on until retirement. I'm happy to pay real money for real prints. I hate fussing with this stuff and being responsible for the results. While I wrote software for print production manufacturing, I never touched the color calibration stuff. I'm just not temperamentally suited for that kind of work. FWIW, the best source of true color images, for doing master copies, have been art coffee books from the 80s and 90s. When the print industry was basically printing money, some publishers took quality seriously.
- reaperducer 6y ago
  There's a modest niche opportunity for a high end print shop to just handle it. Maybe, or maybe not. In my experience, a lot of print shops, especially the chains, won't touch paintings for fear of liability, copyright or otherwise. I tried to get one of my wife's paintings scanned and printed in a major American city, in order to send the print to her mother for Christmas. I must have gone to at least 30 places over two or three months, and none of them would touch it because there was no way to prove ownership. They wouldn't take our word for it. Some wanted paperwork from a lawyer. I ended up taking it to a friend who is an architect, and he had it done in his office.

specialist 6y ago

We've definitely ordered prints directly. At best, they've been IKEA poster quality. Might as well just use Kinkos. There's a modest niche opportunity for a high end print shop to just handle it. White label the service so museums can reskin, rebrand, integrate. I pitched the notion to the two local shops I use (high end, preferred by artists). Build relations with some museums, create a simple e-commerce site. No interest. I get it; Print is a dying industry and the old farts are just holding on until retirement. I'm happy to pay real money for real prints. I hate fussing with this stuff and being responsible for the results. While I wrote software for print production manufacturing, I never touched the color calibration stuff. I'm just not temperamentally suited for that kind of work. FWIW, the best source of true color images, for doing master copies, have been art coffee books from the 80s and 90s. When the print industry was basically printing money, some publishers took quality seriously.

reaperducer 6y ago
There's a modest niche opportunity for a high end print shop to just handle it. Maybe, or maybe not. In my experience, a lot of print shops, especially the chains, won't touch paintings for fear of liability, copyright or otherwise. I tried to get one of my wife's paintings scanned and printed in a major American city, in order to send the print to her mother for Christmas. I must have gone to at least 30 places over two or three months, and none of them would touch it because there was no way to prove ownership. They wouldn't take our word for it. Some wanted paperwork from a lawyer. I ended up taking it to a friend who is an architect, and he had it done in his office.