What is a Giclée?

Giclée, commonly pronounced "zhee-clay," is a generic term for the process of making fine art prints from a digital source using inkjet printing. The term, from the French verb gicler meaning "to squirt, to spray", originally applied to fine art prints created on  Iris printers in a process invented in the early 1990s but has since come to mean any high quality ink-jet print. The word “giclée” was created by Jack Duganne,  a printmaker working in the field, to represent any inkjet based digital print used as fine art. The intent of that name was to distinguish commonly known industrial "(Ixia) Iris print proofs from the type of fine art prints artists were producing.

Giclée is an individually produced high resolution high-fidelity high tech reproduction done on a special large format printer, which make a fabulous reproduction on canvas and has excellent longevity.

Giclée can be printed on any number of media from canvas to watercolor paper to vinyl to transparent acetates.  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 Giclée is far beyond that of lithography and details are crisper.

The Giclée  process employs six colors – light cyan, cyan, light magenta, magenta, yellow and black (sometimes two blacks) of  lightfast (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. 

LIMITED EDITIONS GICLÉES AVAILABLE
FOR REPRODUCTION PRINTS.
CONTACT ROBLES ART STUDIO FOR PRICING AND SIZES.