Software Helps Produce Instant Portrait Art Print

Thanks in part to its installation of the Fuji Hunt Printhunter system, the National Portrait Gallery in London reported a successful Christmas trading season for its shop sales.

Thanks in part to its installation of the Fuji Hunt Printhunter system, the National Portrait Gallery in London reported a successful Christmas trading season for its shop sales.

The NPG decided to install the system, which provides on-the-spot prints of many of the gallery's archived paintings, following its success in servicing the recent display of the entrants in the 2005 BP Portrait Awards.

Printhunter is software ready-loaded in to a touch-screen computer and connected to a Fujifilm-Epson Stylus Pro inkjet printer.

The standard Stylus Pro 4800 model produces reproductions from A4 to A2 (210mm x 297mm to 420mm x 594mm - 8.27" x 11.60" to 16.54" x 23.39") on paper and canvas of the images digitally prepared from the available archive.

Other Stylus Pro models are available, which enable larger prints to be made.

The BP Portrait Award showcases contemporary portrait painting from anywhere in the world.

The award encourages young artists to focus upon and develop the theme of portraiture within their work, offering a first-prize of GBP25,000.

Following a record-breaking entry, more than 50 paintings made up the exhibition in the NPG's Wolfson Gallery, outside which the Printhunter system was set-up to enable visitors to order high quality copies of any of the portraits displayed.

The service proved extremely popular, with the gallery covering its costs within a couple of weeks and going on to make a handsome profit on the venture.

That success encouraged the NPG to install the Fujifilm-Epson Stylus Pro 4000 series printer on a permanent basis in the gallery shop, where it is busy making high margins on beautiful, highly detailed, copies of the many paintings, which form the NPG archive.

NPG Retail Manager Denise Dean, said: "We were extremely pleased with the performance of the Fuji Hunt system.

I was particularly impressed with the high quality of the output and the faithful rendition in print to the original artwork." Following its success in London, the BP Awards exhibition moved to the Scottish National Portrait Gallery until March 12.

Never one to overlook the opportunity for increasing revenue, the SNPG also installed the Printhunter system to accompany the BP Awards exhibition and is still enjoying high returns on its investment.

It caught the end of the Christmas period there and contributed significantly to a record attendance with visitors up 32 per cent on the previous year.

Trevor Drake, Fuji Hunt's sales manager for heritage markets, commented: "Just like any museum or heritage site which installs the Printhunter system, the Portrait Galleries are able to tap in to the excitement and interest of visitors there and then while their enthusiasm is at its peak." He added: "For any heritage site, of whatever size, creating a revenue stream and profit from its image archive is a must in today's commercial environment where the maximum potential spend is sought from each visitor.

What is the point of owning the asset if its value cannot be unlocked and capitalised upon, quite apart from the extra service and pleasure it provides for visitors?" Because, unlike previous methods of offering reproductions, there is no stock holding necessary - the prints are produced on demand whilst the customer waits - operating the Printhunter is extremely economical, claimed Fuji Hunt.

The only continuing costs are the consumables.

They represent a fraction of the prices, which can be obtained, thereby adding significantly to the profit of any museum or gallery's retail function.

Back to top