Question: Who is World Printmakers, anyway, and where are they located?
Answer: World Printmakers was an Internet magazine experiment which got out of hand. Founder, American freelance journalist and editor Mike Booth, chose a subject which was dear to his heart, consulted with his printmaker wife, Maureen, and posted a little printmakers' site called "SpanishPrintmakers.com," which was made up basically of the work of Maureen and her printmaker friends from around Spain. That site received a warm reception, but Booth felt that it was too limited geographically and decided to take on the world with WorldPrintmakers.com. Then World Printmakers took off and Booth was obligated to take the project seriously. He now works full time growing and maintaining both sites.

World Printmakers is located in a village in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains outside of Granada, Spain, because life is good there and there are nightingales which nest in the willows along the river, but the truth is it could be located anyplace in the world as long as there was an Internet connection available, as World Printmakers has global aspirations.

Question: What are the objectives of World Printmakers?
Answer: Just that: global aspirations. We want to be the website of reference for print artists, print collectors, art lovers, educators and institutions from all over the world. We're sneaky, mind you. We're betting that if we provide all of these collectives with honest, reliable and up-to-date information on printmaking issues worldwide, if we fight the good fight against fraudulent print dealing and on behalf of honest printmakers and serious collectors of contemporary prints, then artists will want to put their work on our site and print collectors will have confidence in our offers.

Question: I'm printmaker, what can World Printmakers do for me?
Answer: World Printmakers can provide you with a worldwide showcase for your prints. Currently we have artists from more than 30 countries on the site and we're growing fast. For European artists this means an opportunity to be seen in America, and for the Americans to be discovered in Europe. And let's not forget Asia and Australia!

In specific terms printmakers from all over the world will find the following services available from World Printmakers:

• An online portfolio of prints, each with a thumbnail and enlargement.
• "Full Disclosure" documentation on each of the images.
• A "biography/CV" page, illustrated by one or more images from the artist's portfolio.
• A place in the rotating "featured artists" section on the World Printmakers homepage.
• Invitations to participate in exhibits, fairs, publications and other international art events.
• Inclusion in the World Printmakers search engine.
• The possibility to update periodically the images on the site.
• An "exhibition announcement" on the World Printmakers "exhibits" page whenever you exhibit anywhere in the world.
• The World Printmakers Online Exhibit service.

Question: How do I send my work to World Printmakers? What do you need, and in what format?
Answer: You send all text and images for publication on the World Printmakers website by email. The text can be submitted as MS Word documents or as ASCII text, the images in .jpg format. Image size is 500 pixels on the longest side. (If you are preparing your images on a Mac, be sure they are exportable to a PC environment. Just select "Save as…" then choose "IBM-PC" from the "Byte order" option.) You needn't bother compressing the files, as the .jpg format is already compressed. Full-disclosure documentation, as stipulated in the World Printmakers Certificate of Authenticity should accompany every image. A photograph of the artist is also required. Depending upon which form of participation you choose, you may also want to send an artist's statement, a biography/CV and, where relevant, an explanation of your printmaking techniques. For a full explanation see "I'm a printmaker…"

Question: How much does it cost an artist to post his work on World Printmakers?
Answer: World Printmakers has recently (June 2006) changed its operating procedures. We no longer charge commissions on work sold by artists on the site. Instead customers are referred directly to the artists, who attend them personally. The only cost to the artists is a yearly fee of 199 euros (about $260). See more details on the "I'm a printmaker…" page.

Question: What are your conditions for artists and guarantee for print buyers?
Answer: They're too long to list here. Why not have a look at them on our Conditions page? While you're at it you might also have a look at the note on technical considerations for submission of work to World Printmakers.

Question: I'm interested in buying contemporary graphic art. What can World Printmakers do for me?
Answer: First of all World Printmakers will provide you with exhaustive information on printmaking history, techniques, editions, events and even frauds. We'll help you distinguish between an authentic work of serial art and a reprographic reproduction. We feel very strongly that you have a right to know what's going down out there in the art jungle! Then, we'll put at your disposal a selection of limited editions of contemporary fine-art prints done by authentic printmakers from a ever-growing number of countries from all over the world. We'll guarantee your satisfaction and curry your loyalty shamelessly.

Question: We're a gallery specialized in fine-art prints. What can World Printmakers do for us?
Answer: World Printmakers is in the process of creating a section on the site for art galleries dedicated wholly or mainly to limited-edition fine-art prints. We haven't presented it yet because we want to do more research into the needs and aspirations of the participating galleries. If you are a gallery owner, contact us, and we'll discuss the matter in an open-ended way.

Question: We're fine-art print publishers. What can World Printmakers do for us.
Answer: See the above answer. Our current standpoint regarding print publishers is identical to that regarding galleries.

Question: We're a university art department. What can World Printmakers do for us?
Answer: First and foremost, World Printmakers represents a printmaking resource center which is at your disposal for teaching purposes. You have our permission to print us up, download us, project us, quote us, extract us or otherwise utilize all the material on World Printmakers for legitimate teaching purposes. We are also prepared to publish relevant research papers on printmaking subjects. Obviously, we can't publish your entire doctoral thesis, but if you have papers, articles or other commentary on printmaking themes, we'd love to have a look at them with an eye to publishing them. If they deal with printmaking in a given country or period, so much the better. If you have images to go along with them, better yet! And if your department hosts student, faculty or other exhibits, we'd like to consider publishing a virtual version on World Printmakers. Keep us informed!

Question: We're an art magazine. What can World Printmakers do for us?
Answer: We have placed at your disposal a new online "press room" which puts text and photos at your disposal 24 hours a day. We can also propose you an advertising interchange. It's highly likely that we have readers you need, and you have readers for us.

Question: We're an art-supply firm with a large selection of supplies for printmakers. What can World Printmakers do for us?
Answer: World Printmakers can offer you an exceedingly-well-targeted advertising vehicle in the printmaking sector both worldwide and on the national level. Have a look at our advertising-on-World-Printmakers page, and drop us an email if you'd like to receive our advertising rate sheet. You might also be interested in our events sponsorship opportunities.

Question: I'm a digital printmaker. What can World Printmakers do for me?
Answer: World Printmakers doesn't distinguish between digital and non-digital printmakers. You're all welcome on our site if your work is presented in the form of true limited-edition fine-art prints. That is to say, did you create the matrix (in this case the digital file) yourself? Is it an original work, as opposed to a copy of work done in another medium (e.g. a scanned image of a watercolor)? Was it printed up as a limited edition, numbered hand signed by the author? After printing was the matrix cancelled? Then it's a print. Send it along!

Question: I'm a professional interior designer. What can World Printmakers do for me?
Answer: World Printmakers works with interior decorators and designers around the world. If you would like to email us a brief RFQ with your name, the name of your company, your design specialities, a brief description of the commission in question, a notion of the existing decor (if applicable), the color scheme, suggested sizes for the pieces and the type of prints you think might work best, we'll get back to you within 24 hours with some suggestions and points to discuss.

Question: We're in the market for creative and prestigous executive gifts. Is there anything that World Printmakers can do for us?
Answer: Dollar for dollar, no other executive gift and compete with the original fine-art print in terms of value, class and caché. More and more businesses are discovering the charm and impact of prints as gifts. Last Christmas we had a client who sold shooting galleries to the police and the army. They sent out an edition of fine-art prints to key officers in both institutions and were delighted to find these hardened professionals absolutely "encantados" with their prints. Want more details? Have a look at Let's Talk Business...

Question: We're a printmaking workshop. What can World Printmakers do for us?
Answer: World Printmakers has a twofold service for printmaking workshops. In the first place we can offer you our marketplace of art lovers, print collectors and fine-art printmakers. And, with our new Workshop Direct service we have created the advertising vehicle to reach this rich market. Contact us and we'll discuss the details.

Question: World Printmakers is getting bigger. How do I go about finding the information I need.
Answer: We have tried from the beginning to organize the site in an orderly, intuitive way. That only works up to a point, the point where there's too much information to scan comfortably. So, we have outfitted the World Printmakers with its own internal search engine. It's at the bottom right of the homepage (in a funky, WP-style text link…) Just click there, then type in your search term. There is also a convenient option for searching the whole Web.

Question: Is there a way I can receive a reminder of World Printmakers updates and offers?
Answer: Sure is, just sign up for the World Printmakers Newsletter .

Question: What do I have to do to appear in your Print Links section?
Answer: Provide a bona fide service for the printmaking community.