About Giclée Printing

About Giclée Printing

The evolution of computer technologies has created a benefit for fine art printing. A fine art Giclée is created from the artist's original artwork. An extremely high resolution digital image of the artwork is made, then loaded into specially enhanced printers that output the digital image onto fine art paper or canvas. Since the digital image includes every subtlety and nuance of the original - including the smallest details of light and shadow such as the textures of the paint and canvas or paper - the fine art Giclée is often indistinguishable from the original work of art. Brush strokes have the appearance of brush strokes, even though they are only two dimensional images on paper. Typically, limited edition artwork is hand-signed by the artist indicating their personal approval of each work of art, then individually numbered to identify each work of art as a part of the total edition.

The Definition : Giclée (zhee-klay) - The French word "Giclée" is a feminine noun that means a spray or a spurt of liquid. This term was coined by a Californian man named “John Doe”. No, this is not a joke.

The Term : The term "Giclée print" connotes an elevation in printmaking technology. Images are generated from high resolution digital scans and printed with archival quality inks onto various substrates including canvas, fine art, and photo-base paper. The Giclée printing process provides better color accuracy than other means of reproduction.

The Process : Giclée prints are created typically using professional 8-Color to 12-Color ink-jet printers. Among the manufacturers of these printers are vanguards such as Epson, MacDermid Colorspan, & Hewlett-Packard. These modern technology printers are capable of producing incredibly detailed prints for both the fine art and photographic markets. Giclée prints are sometimes mistakenly referred to as Iris prints, which are 4-Color ink-jet prints from a printer pioneered in the late 1970s by Iris Graphics.

The Advantages : Giclée prints are advantageous to artists who do not find it feasible to mass produce their work, but want to reproduce their art as needed, or on-demand. Once an image is digitally archived, additional reproductions can be made with minimal effort and reasonable cost. The prohibitive up-front cost of mass production for an edition is eliminated. Archived files will not deteriorate in quality as negatives and film inherently do. Another tremendous advantage of Giclée printing is that digital images can be reproduced to almost any size and onto various media, giving the artist the ability to customize prints for a specific client.

The Quality : The quality of the Giclée print rivals traditional silver-halide and gelatin printing processes and is commonly found in museums, art galleries, and photographic galleries.

The Market : Numerous examples of Giclée prints can be found in New York City at the Metropolitan Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Chelsea Galleries. Recent auctions of Giclée prints have fetched $10,800 for Annie Leibovitz, $9,600 for Chuck Close, and $22,800 for Wolfgang Tillmans (April 23/24 2004, Photographs, New York, Phillips de Pury & Company.)