Giclée Prints
What does Giclée mean?
Giclée (zhee-klay) - The French word "giclée" is a feminine noun that means a spray or a spurt of liquid. The word may have been derived from the French verb "gicler" meaning "to squirt".
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.
How are Giclée art prints made?
In Giclée printing, no screen or other mechanical devices are used and therefore there is no visible dot screen pattern. The image has all the tonalities and hues of the original painting. Prints are much different from those from a standard desktop inkjet printer, and can be printed much larger.
What are the advantages of Giclée prints?
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.
Do Giclée printers use ordinary printers inks?
No. They use special light-fast inks, which, if kept out of direct sunlight, will remain true for up to 25 years or longer. We use Epson Ultracrome inks. The ink set we uses includes 8 separate inks. Typical desktop printers use 4 inks included in one cartridge.
More information on the inks we use.
What kind of printing paper is used for Giclée prints?
Giclée prints can be produced on any paper as you wish, and printers generally have several specific ones to choose from. We typically print on:
Canvas prints are much more durable than paper as they do not crease when rolled for mailing.
Is there a minimum order size for Giclée prints?
No, an advantage of Giclée printing is that once the scan is made, you can order one or one thousand. We, however, do give quantity discounts. So, the more you order, the cheaper each print it.
What size/resolution do you work in?
All work is done at the artworks original size at 300dpi. Files are saved as .TIF files to ensure no loss in quality due to compression. Print output ranges from 1440dpi to 2880dpi depending on the specifications of the media on which it is printed.
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