Lab-quality prints, not inkjet.
A photo's value comes down to how well it looks on paper today, and ten years from now. That's why we use the same technology and paper professional photo studios across Europe use. The full story here.
DNP DS820 — dye-sublimation, not inkjet.
DNP DS820 is a thermal dye-sublimation printer. In short: color is heated from a ribbon until it sublimates into the paper's surface layer. An office inkjet sprays droplets onto the paper surface — the surface is dry but the color sits on top.
What the difference looks like: dye-sublimation gives deeper colors, smoother gradients, and prints that don't fear a damp finger or light rubbing. It's the same technology professional photo labs across Scandinavia and Germany run.
DNP Premium Paper (PP), not standard.
DNP makes several paper grades for the DS820. We don't use the standard media that cheaper services run on — we print on DS820 8×12" PP, the Premium Paper line. The same grade professional photo labs across Scandinavia choose.
The difference is practical: thicker (~270 g/m² vs the standard 235 g/m²), a tougher mechanical surface, deeper colors and better longevity over time. It's not the cheapest media you can run on a DNP printer — it's the best.
Glossy
The classic photo finish. The surface has a reflective layer that gives colors more depth and contrast. Best for portraits, evening shots and low-light scenes. Fingerprints show — frame it or keep it in an album.
Matte
Smooth, non-reflective surface. Colors are slightly softer but detail is sharper. Best for framed wall art — no reflections, no awkward viewing angles.
Same price, same longevity. Pick whichever you prefer.
We manage color with ICC profiles, not by eye.
A color profile is the note stored alongside a photo saying what its numbers mean — whether 0, 180, 80 is a moderate green or a fiercely bright one. Without it the numbers are just numbers, and every device makes its own guess.
You don't have to do anything. Every upload is converted for print automatically: sRGB (phones, ordinary exports) passes through unchanged, Adobe RGB and ProPhoto are converted, and an untagged file is read as sRGB — because that is what it almost always is. A CMYK file (some print-shop exports) is converted properly too, rather than taken at face value.
The printer's own profile — the manufacturer's measurement of this paper — then turns that into the paper's numbers. The manufacturer offers several, which render the same file with a different overall character; we use the most restrained of them, because the point is that what comes off the paper is what was in the file, not something punchier.
If you work in color seriously: export to sRGB and leave the profile embedded. Don't convert twice (ProPhoto → sRGB → Adobe RGB) — every conversion costs a little. Deeply saturated greens and blues are the only places where the paper and sRGB don't overlap; if that matters to the image, soft-proof before you send it.
Up to 100 years in an album, 25 in a frame.
Dye-sublimation lays a protective overcoat down in the same pass as the color, which is what makes these prints resist UV, humidity and handling. DNP publishes the following longevity estimates for this media — they depend heavily on how a print is stored and displayed:
- In an album, away from light: up to 100 years before measurable color shift
- In a frame under glass, regular home lighting: up to 25 years
- Direct sunlight without glass: 5–7 years
These are manufacturer estimates under controlled conditions, not a warranty — real-world life depends on light, humidity and handling. Keep your prints the way photos have always been kept and they'll outlast you.
If something goes wrong, we send replacements.
If your prints arrive damaged, misprinted, or with colors that came out wrong on our side, reply to our shipping email or write to info@pigmenta.ee with a photo of the problem. We send a fresh batch with no paperwork. The guarantee applies up to 14 days from delivery.
We don't ask you to send the old prints back (that would be more hassle than it's worth) — keep them, and send us a photo if you can, so we can spot a pattern.
What it doesn't cover: we print exactly the file you upload, so a result caused by the source photo itself — low resolution, blur, heavy compression, a crop or a colour profile saved into the file — isn't a production defect. The terms of sale set this out in full.