what is a giclee?

The Giclée (zhee-CLAY)
is an individually produced, high-resolution, high-fidelity reproduction of an original piece of artwork. It is printed on a special large format inkjet printer from a digital capture, eliminating the detail-robbing generations of negatives and printing plates used in traditional printing. Giclées can be printed on a variety of media, from canvas to watercolor paper to transparent acetates. In addition, since many artists now produce only digital art, (which means there is no “original piece” that can be hung on a wall), giclées become a vibrant new medium for Artists.

The GicléeAadvantage
When it comes to the reproduction of color, the range of color for giclées is far beyond that of lithography: Lithography uses tiny dots of four colors (cyan, magenta, yellow and black) to fool the eye into seeing various hues and shades. The colors on a litho are “created” by printing different sized dots of these four colors. Giclées use inkjet technology, but at a far more sophisticated level than that of ordinary desktop printers. The process employs seven colors (light cyan, cyan, light magenta, magenta, yellow black and light black) of lightfast, pigmented inks and more numerous and finer printheads. Colors on a giclée are actually “mixed” as they are sprayed onto the medium, resulting in true shades and hues.

When compared to traditional printing
giclée colors are brighter, the details are crisper, the prints last longer, and the resolution is much greater, because they are virtually continuous tone rather than tiny dots.

The price of giclées falls midway between that of original art and regular limited edition lithographs. Limited edition litho prints are usually produced in editions of 500-1000 or more, all at one time; giclée prints rarely exceed 50-100, and are produced one at a time.

Giclées were originally developed as a proofing system for lithograph printing presses, but when it was apparent that the presses could not deliver the quality and color of the giclée proofs, they soon evolved into the new darlings of the art world. Giclées are coveted by collectors for their fidelity and quality, and desired by galleries because they don’t have to be produced in huge quantities like lithos, reducing storage requirements and capital outlay.