About this project

Help us create large format prints (up to 5' wide x 300' long) of gigapixel macro photographs, produced over the past three (3) years. We recently acquired a 60" large format printer and need your help to stock the studio with paper, ink, and supplies to operate the printer.

The photographs themselves are extremely detailed, and cover a wide range of topics...perfectly suited for large format printing. Some photographs are over 25 gigapixels (25,000 megapixels) or 2,000 times more detailed than a 12 megapixel photo. Here's a brief overview of how they are created...

This is a one-time offering of affordable prints of amazing subjects to our backers! Choose from any gigapixel macro photograph listed on our GIGAmacro website. 

http://gigamacro.com/gigapixel-macro-photograph-gallery/

For the holidays...
If you'd like to gift a print to a family member or friend for the holiday, simply make a pledge at your desired level and send us the name of the person you'd like the gift to go to. We'll send them an email on the date you specify and allow them to pick the photograph they'd like to have printed in large format. We'll then send it to them within 2 weeks or sooner.

We'll also be sharing prints with Arizona State University, Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Carnegie Mellon University, The Exploratorium, the USDA, MakerFaire, and Siggraph, among others. For these researchers, it an invaluable visual tool to use for educational tours, talks, and exhibits.

What we're using the funds for...
We recently had the opportunity to purchase a used HP DesignJet 5000 60" printer, and we need your help to stock the studio with paper, ink, and supplies. The paper, ink, and software to run the printer have a significant start-up cost and are needed to get the printer up and running to produce prints of this scale. 

The story of the HP DesignJet 5000 60" printer...
We jumped on this opportunity when we saw the printer come up for auction. Brand new, this printer originally sold for over $16,000. We were lucky enough to buy it for less than $500 at government liquidation auction, paid the shipping (over $600) to get it back to our studio, and already have the parts in place to get it up and running. 

How we've used prints in the past...
We first created prints of this size in 2009 and have since showed a very small collection (5 large format prints) at Google I/O, MakerFaire, Siggraph, and other venues. The prints we have always draw a lot of excitement and are incredibly valuable to us and the researchers we work with. We've used them to help promote the GIGAmacro technology and since then have created a large collection of gigapixel macro photographs that we would dearly love to share with everyone in print format. 

Large format gigapixel macro photography prints on display at MakerFaire 2010 as part of the Explorable Microscopy project and GIGAmacro.