Guide to Giclee

Giclee printing has created a new opportunity to offer high-end prints on canvas and watercolor papers.

The giclee term was originally coined in California in the early 90s. A few pioneers realized that the Iris printer, (Inkjet) originally intended for pre-press proofing, could actually print on a variety of art papers and canvas with fantastic color rendition and results.

Leaping over a decade ahead, many machines are now capable of printing quality grade giclees. Epson, Roland, Colorspan are some of the manufacturers.

Although there is no accepted guideline as to what constitutes a giclee, the generally established wisdom is the following:

-The use of archival pigmented inks, not dyes
-Archival fine art papers such as canvas or watercolor
-A professional inkjet printer with commercial grade nozzles
-Each substrate is profiled
-The skill of the printer. Color correction and scanning experience,  Photoshop expertise are essential to creating true to the original reproductions.

Giclee offers a color gamut much wider that 4 color traditional press runs. Many printers have anywhere from 6 to 12 different inks, which improves the range of hues that can be successfully transferred.

Finally, giclees are virtually continuous tone prints, without the half tone screen typical of press products.

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