What Are Limited Edition Prints and Artist Proofs?

Posted on April, 23, 2020

I wasn’t exactly clear when I started doing limited edition prints myself. So, I did a lot of research and thought a quick explanation might help others out too.

Basically, it means that there are only a certain number of prints sold. Easy enough, right?

When the artist signs a limited edition print, they also include “x of how many ever prints were created.”

So, it would be like 1/200, 2/200 and so on. It may also be written as 1 of 200.

You might find this information on the back of a print in some cases. Different artists have different ways. Those quirky weird people!

Artists may do a series of one which means it’s unique and there are no other prints of it. It’s labeled like 1/1 or 1 of 1.

Artist proofs are created when the right print settings are being determined.

Artist proof prints are labeled A/P instead of the number. There’s usually only maybe 2-3 of these test prints at the very most. If there’s more than one artist proof, it’s labeled like A/P 1, A/P 2, etc. Artist proofs are not usually sold.

It sounds pretty straight forward, but a lot of people (myself included at one point) don’t realize how a limited edition can help increase the value of a print.

The two main factors in determining the value of a limited edition print are the popularity of the artist’s work and how big the run was.

So, if there’s a run of 20 vs 1,000, the smaller run will be worth more.

Unlimited runs can still be valuable, but obviously, if there’s less of something, it’s going to be more sought-after.

If there’s no specification of what number it is, it’s more than likely not a limited edition print.

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So, that’s all I got! If you got this far, you must have found this somewhat interesting. ?

Don’t forget to check out my limited edition giclée prints while you’re here! I’ve got a couple of new pieces you might not have seen.

If you don’t know what a giclée print is, I also just wrote an article explaining what that is as well.