Art Talk
What’s the Big Deal with Giclée?
Why do Artists prefer Giclée printing
Founder | Sara
Limited Edition Prints are an excellent way to for artists to share their artwork. As a customer, it gives you the opportunity to own a high quality reproduction of an original work.
Giclée printing (pronounced “zhee-clays”), is French term meaning “to spray”, referring to how inkjet printing works and how giclee prints are usually produced. This is an advanced digital printing method used to create high quality reproductions of your original artwork. Artists use this method when making art prints of their original paintings or drawings.
Highest Quality Results
Giclee printing is a process used by professional artists to create large-format prints of their artwork.
This method uses smaller droplets of ink than other methods, producing a much more detailed image. Inks are also specially formulated to give a rich colour and smooth surface when printed. Paper types vary depending on what you want your print to look like. Some papers are glossy while others are matte.
Professional Technique
Highest Quality Paper
A professional printer should be able to produce a quality print of a scanned piece of art. Most printers today can produce prints up to 600 dpi (dots per inch). This means that you can get a very detailed picture of the original artwork.
For a print to classed as a Giclée print it would be produced using archival papers, high quality art paper and a printer that can hold more than twelve ink cartridges. It is the closest possible replication of the original.
Prints that last a Lifetime
With the help a professional printer you can scan or photograph an original artwork. An artist’s proof is then printed. Once the artist has approved that the print the production file is generated, with all the details pertaining colour, density, paper finishing, print size, white spaces, etc. locked in place for identical prints.
If the owner of the print takes good care, a Giclée Limited Edition Print will last for at least 100 years. If your artwork is kept away from direct sunlight, even longer.
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Great explanation of what is involved in these top class prints of the original pieces of art. And I still can’t pronounce Giclée properly (insert eye roll) there is no hope.
YASS! I can’t pronounce it either lol
This information has been really valuable. I never knew this before and will now be able to look at creating Giclée prints for the one-off works that I create. Brilliant!
Fab informative piece – you can’t get any higher quality print than a giclee – the same as used for gallery standard prints