What is Giclée?

Giclée is a form of high-quality fine art printing using pigment based, archival quality inks, manufactured on advanced inkjet printers. Giclée fine art printing has become the gold standard when it comes to producing museum-level quality prints. It is the highest quality print option available today and is widely used by galleries, publishers, and artists around the globe. It can even be seen featured in major museums such as the Smithsonian and the Metropolitan Museum of NY.

Who invented Giclée?

The word Giclée (pronounced gee-klay) was derived from a blend of French words: gicleur, a technical term for a nozzle or jet, and gicler, to spray out. The term was initially coined by printmaker Jack Duganne, who is known as a pioneer of the digital art revolution.

What makes Giclée prints better than other printing methods?

Other traditional print technologies (lithography, or standard digital injket or laser printing, for example) use the classic Cyan, Magenta, Yellow & Black (CMYK) 4-color format. Giclée printers however, use up to 12 individual colors, which makes the prints almost indistinguishable from the original art. This process provides a broader color spectrum & smoother gradient transitions that allow for more depth and richness to come through on the final print. Unlike other printing processes, Giclée allows the image to retain its high quality resolution across all prints, large or small. Lastly, one of the main benefits of using Giclée is that the inks don’t fade. In fact, the vibrant archival ink colors used in these prints are guaranteed to retain their brilliance for a lifetime when displayed in normal conditions indoors.

Are Giclée prints as valuable as authentic artworks?

Contrary to what some might think, reproducing artwork will not decrease the value of an original. In fact, Giclée prints can actually increase the value of an original. Also because of the high quality, these prints can often increase in value over time. Giclée prints are often created as monotypes (one-of-a-kind) or in limited edition, individually numbered quantities (typically from around 10-300 copies). Giclée prints are often accompanied with a certificate of authenticity from the artist or print house.