Giclée is a French word that means to squirt, and is pronounced 'ghee-clay'. The name describes the process used by the printers which digitally spray tiny squirts of archival ink onto canvas or paper at millions of droplets per second. The combination of intense spray, high-resolution imaging, and wide range of color inks result in fine art reproduction with crisp detail and saturated colors. Using pigmented inks rather than water based inks enhances archival properties.
Giclée prints are widely accepted and can be found in the permanent collections of many museums. These museums include The Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York), the Guggenheim (New York), The Boston Museum of Fine Art, The British Museum, The National Museum of Mexico. The Smithsonian Institution is now reproducing many of its vintage photographs as giclée prints in a new agreement with the Graphic Trust.
What are the advantages of giclée?
One of the many advantages to the giclée printing process is its on - demand printing capability. Giclée editions with their consistent quality and cost effective printing allow the artist to order reproductions of as few as 5 at a time, eliminating the need for storage. It also lets the artist reproduce his/her artwork in limited editions on more than one type of archival substrate and image size.
What kind of medium reproduces well using giclée?
Virtually all mediums reproduce well using giclée, and, if done well, they are hard to distinguish from the original. Oil paintings with high relief and texture will not look like the original because of the inherent lack of texture in the reproduction process. Hand embellishment can be rendered to the canvases by the artist, however, to help restore that original texture. Most oil paintings reproduce well, as do acrylic, pencil, pen & ink, charcoal, pastel, monotype and photographic mediums.