What's a Giclée Print?

A giclée (zhee-CLAY), is an individually produced, high-resolution, high-fidelity, high tech reproduction done on a special large format printer. Giclées are produced from digital scans of existing artwork and can be printed on any number of media, mainly canvas and watercolor paper. Giclées are superior to traditional lithography in nearly every way. The colors are brighter, last longer, and are so high-resolution that they are virtually 'continuous tone', rather than tiny dots. The range, or "gamut" of color for giclées is far beyond that of lithography, and details are crisper. Lithography uses tiny dots of four colors (cyan, magenta, yellow and black) and all the colours are "created" by printing different size dots of these four colours. Giclées use inkjet technology, but far more sophisticated than a desktop printer. The process employs six colors (light cyan, cyan, light magenta, magenta, yellow and black) of light-fast (fade resistant), pigmented inks and finer, more numerous, replaceable print-heads resulting in a wider color gamut, and the ability to use various media to print on. The ink is sprayed onto the page, actually mixing the color on the page to create truer shades and hues. Giclées, originally developed as a proofing system for traditional lithographic printing presses, eventually evolved into the best within the reproductions in the art world. After the original paintings, the best next are the giclée prints.