Editions

An ‘edition’ is a number of prints made using a single printing plate, often in one sitting. A ‘limited edition’ describes an edition of prints with a fixed number. The number of prints created as part of an ‘open edition’, on the other hand, has no limit.

Limited edition prints usually bear the signature of the artist, as well as a fraction (01/250, for example) indicating the number of an individual print and the overall edition size.

The size of an edition has a direct impact on prices. Smaller editions mean there are fewer prints made; each print is therefore more valuable, and more expensive.

Proofs

A simple way of understanding an Artist Proof is to think of it as a finalised print that the artist approves to sign off the production of the Limited Edition. Artist Proofs are always made in connection with Limited Edition Prints.

At the start of the production process, artists and publishers request to review impressions of prints to see the current state of the image or of the printing plate, verify the quality of their work and, if needed, make corrections. The proof prints made at the early stages of production can be called test prints, trial proofs, state proofs or colour proofs, and are unfinished works the artist and printmaker work on.

Once the image is perfected and both the artist and the printmaker are fully satisfied with the result, a very limited number of impressions of the finished work is made before the production of the Limited Edition begins. Such prints are called Artist Proofs (or APs) and are identical in quality and nature to the prints that sit in the edition. Once an Artist Proof is made, the numbered edition is matched to that image and production of the editioned prints begins.