Giclee Printing

Giclee (pronounced Gee’clay with a soft G) is a French term meaning to spray or squirt, which is how the giclee process works. However, it is not the same as a standard desktop inkjet printer, and is generally much larger. In giclee printing, no screen or other mechanical devices are used and therefore there is no visible dot screen pattern such as that seen in traditional commercial lithographic printing. The image has all the tonalities and hues of the original painting.

Images are generated from high resolution digital files and printed with archival quality inks onto various substrates including canvas, fine art, and photo-base paper. The giclee printing process provides a high level of color accuracy.

Prints are created typically using professional 8-Color to 12-Color ink-jet printers. Among the manufacturers of these printers are Epson, MacDermid Colorspan, & Hewlett-Packard. These modern technology printers are capable of producing incredibly detailed prints for the fine art market. The effectiveness of giclee print technology now rivals all and betters many of the commonly used art printing processes and is found in many museums, art galleries, and photographic galleries.

Examples of giclee prints can be found in New York City at the Metropolitan Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Chelsea Galleries. Auctions of giclee prints have fetched $10,800 for Annie Leibovitz, $9,600 for Chuck Close, and $22,800 for Wolfgang Tillmans (April 23/24 2004, Photographs, New York, Phillips de Pury & Company.)