What The Heck is a Giclée Print?

In giclée printing (pronounced zhee’clay), special light-fast inks are sprayed on to the printing surface - usually canvas or cotton rag fine art paper. Unlike lithographs, no screens or mechanical plates are used so there is no visible dot screen pattern and no decline in print quality over the span of a run. The result is a consistant image with all the tonalities and hues of the original painting.

Giclée is a French term meaning to spray or squirt, which is just how an inkjet printer works. But a giclée printer is usually much larger, uses many more colors and has a much finer spray pattern than your standard desktop inkjet printer.

The process begins with an ultra high quality digital scan which is then color corrected and proofed to match the original artwork as closely as possible. When ready, the image is sent to the giclée printer where a single sheet of fine art paper or rolled media has been loaded. Creating the prints is a bit of an art in itself as each is painstakingly checked for quality. I check every one of my prints personally before they are signed and numbered.

The final result is an archival quality collector's print which is often difficult to tell from an original painting. For this reason, giclée printing has become the 'gold standard' for fine art prints.

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