The Giclée Print
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A Giclée is a recognized and collectible category of fine art. Giclée (zhee-clay) is a French term roughly meaning "spray of ink", which describes the digital printing process. No fine art printmaking method has ever caused so much excitement as the Giclée. Prints may be digitally enhanced, altered or hand embellished by the artist so each one is truly unique. The process is especially suited to the digital artist who works in Photoshop or other composition programs. Prints can be made on demand so an edition can be filled as prints are sold. Prints can also be offered in different sizes as needed.
Are Giclée
prints archival?
Yes, recent developments
in ink and media are producing prints that will last for decades. Accelerated
aging tests indicate longevity ranging from 50 to 200 years depending upon the
ink set, media and display environment. Giclée (zhe-clay') is French for "squirt."
The Giclée printing process involves squirting microscopic dots of ink onto
fine quality paper or canvas. On paper, the inks are actually absorbed slightly
and blend to create fine art reproductions that are often indistinguishable
from the originals. On canvas, the process yields prints of stunning vibrancy
and realism.
The word Giclée is a French word meaning 'to squirt', which is what an inkjet printer does. The process is digital printmaking uses minute droplets of ink to create prints that cannot be duplicated by other printing techniques. Because there is no visible dot screen pattern the resulting image has all of the subtle tonalities of the original art. Each dot may have over 4 billion possible colors! This renders an amazingly smooth and consistent image, a Museum Quality Fine Art Reproduction.
Among the many museums with Giclée prints in their collections are: The British Museum, The Metropolitan Museum New York, Los Angeles County Museum, Museum of Modern Art New York, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
A Giclée is a high resolution digital print made from an archival ink and media combination. Giclée is also a recognized fine art print category like lithographs and serigraphs. Giclée is considered the world's best technique for reproducing original works of art and for printing digitally created art and fine art photography.
Giclée printmaking has opened up new markets for one-of-a-kind and short run limited edition artwork. Giclée prints look and feel like original art. Since Giclée printmaking is digital throughout the entire process, there is much more control of color and greater opportunity for artist interaction. Color is much richer and more saturated than other types of printing. Prints are made on real artist materials such as watercolor papers and canvas. Prints are a combination of continuous tone and stocastic screen patterns which makes it difficult to distinguish between giclée prints and original artwork. Giclée provides higher resolution and more reproducible colors than other printmaking techniques.
Giclée prints are sometimes referred to as 'Iris' prints, which comes from earlier technology where the Iris printers were used for offset proofing. Some printmakers promote 'Iris Prints' as superior due to use of Iris printers-which may have been true years ago, but the latest giclée printers offer higher resolution and more refined ink and media technologies. Note: Iris is now out of business.
What are the advantages to artists? The advantage of Giclée prints to the artists is it allows the artist to reproduce their art as needed instead of in high volumes. Another tremendous advantage to Giclée printing is that artwork can be reproduced to almost any size and on various media, giving the artist the ability to customize prints for a specific client. How long will Giclée art last? Image permanence is a concern to artists and collectors. Giclée art is very stable, giving fade & color shift resistance of better than 50 years for average indoor light conditions. When museum quality lighting is used watercolor paper is used, this time span increases up to 200 years.
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