The National Gallery of London in June of 2003 introduced the first gallery Prints-On-Demand service, through funding and technology support from Hewlett Packard. The introducion is described in detail through an HP News Release issued in June of 2003.

More information is available under Posters & Prints on the Gift Shop section at the National Gallery's website.

An example available from the Gallery is a piece entitled "The Fighting Temeraire tugged to her last Berth to be broken up, 1838".

Painted 1n 1939 by TURNER, Joseph Mallord William (1775 - 1851) it has been voted The Greatest Painting in Britain.

The 98-gun ship 'Temeraire' played a distinguished role in Nelson's victory at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, after which she was known as the 'Fighting Temeraire'. The ship remained in service until 1838 when she was decommissioned and towed from Sheerness to Rotherhithe to be broken up.

The painting was thought to represent the decline of Britain's naval power. The 'Temeraire' is shown travelling east, away from the sunset, even though Rotherhithe is west of Sheerness, but Turner's main concern was to evoke a sense of loss, rather than to give an exact recording of the event. The spectacularly colourful setting of the sun draws a parallel with the passing of the old warship. By contrast the new steam-powered tug is smaller and more prosaic.

Turner was in his sixties when he painted 'The Fighting Temeraire'. It shows his mastery of painting techniques to suggest sea and sky. Paint laid on thickly is used to render the sun's rays striking the clouds. By contrast, the ship's rigging is meticulously painted.

ACT Cinemage and The National Gallery Of London - An Historical Review

Advanced Cultural Technologies Inc., now wholly owned by Cinemage Corporation, partnered with the National Gallery of London in a project entitled VISEUM from 1996 to 1998. Conceptualized by ACT Founder and current Cinemage Executive Chair Edgar Froese, the project undertook to demonstrate the feasibility of advanced networks for future virtual museum applications, of which Prints-On-Demand is now emerging as the first.

Through an extensive project consortium that included The Louvre in Paris and DeTeBerkom in Berlin, the project put in place a multi-gigabyte prototype installation linking ACT facilities in Vancouver to facilities at the National Gellery in London. Funded by the European Union's Advanced Communications and Technology Systems (ACTS) research stream and support by CANARIE in Canada (Canadian Advanced Network for Research, Industry, and Education) and Rnet BC (Research Networking Association of British Columbia) of which Mr. Froese was a Director, the trial illustrated in the mid nineties the practicality of large format image browsing over high speed broadband networks. A report report on network performance was prepared by ACTS Duncan Napier. The project resulted in additional research papers papers by consortium partners on network based image browsing