Giclée Printing

What is Giclee?

Giclee is a French term ‘Jet d’encre’ meaning to squirt or spray, referring to how an inkjet printer works in the production of giclee prints. The word giclée was adopted by Jack Duganne around 1990.

The Oxford dictionary suggests: ‘a digital printing process in which an ink-jet printer is used to produce a high-quality art print’.

While Wikipedia explains: ‘ The name was originally applied to fine art prints created on a modified Iris printer in a process invented in the late 1980s. It has since been used loosely to mean any fine-art printing, usually archival, printed by inkjet.

It is often used by artists, galleries, and print shops to suggest high quality printing, but is an unregulated word with no associated warranty of quality.’ Morden inkjet printers use technology that can match colour and apply ink precisely, creating a high fidelity printed replica of the original.

Is a giclee print better than an art print?

Using the latest digital ink-jet technology, we print pigment-based inks onto archival-quality paper to produce richly coloured and precise fine art prints. Giclée printing enables you you achieve the best possible reproduction of your images, turning your digital files or artwork into beautiful prints that will last a lifetime

What is the difference between a giclee and a regular print?

1: Images printed as a Giclee need to be created at a resolution of no less than 300 dots per inch (DPI). In the case of a photo or conventional artwork reproduction, that means that the camera or scanner used to capture the image or scan the artwork must be able to do so at 300 DPI.

2: For Giclee printing, the paper or substrate used to print the final piece must be of archival quality. Any professional series paper will probably indicate if it is archival quality on the box.

3:The last element in a true Giclee print is the type of ink and printer used. The biggest contrast between a standard inkjet print and a Giclee print is that Giclee are printed using pigment-based inks rather than the dye-based inks found in lower-cost inkjets. Pigment-based inks have a longer lifespan, and can last 65-85 years without significant fading.

Struggling with how to pronounce Giclee?

It’s pronounced ‘zshee-clay’ -or ‘g.clay’ but we will understand whichever way you say it.
If you want to know more about fine art printing and how we can product fabulous prints of you artwork just call and we will guide you through the process quickly and simply.

Visit our page Giclée Printing Service -Professional photo printing, fine art prints.