| Giclee pronounced 'Zhee clay' comes from the | | | | increases resolution and colour gamut. The |
| French word gicler, which means to spurt. It is an | | | | printers can use a variety of substrates and even |
| invented name by printmaker James Duganne in | | | | produce fabulous prints on thick paper, card and |
| the 1990's. Giclee is an art process by making fine | | | | board with beautiful fine art finishes. Epson printing |
| art prints from an inkjet printer. Jack Duganne | | | | technology has now increased the CcMmYK |
| worked with Iris Proof Printers the first ink jet | | | | process by adding a light black and a light light |
| printers to produce fine art prints. The Iris printers | | | | black and also matte black for matte papers and |
| are large format printers and were used for | | | | fine art papers including canvas. This is to deplete |
| proofing and colour matching. They produced | | | | bronzing and to create stunning black and white |
| excellent colour accuracy and could print on | | | | giclee prints. There have been other |
| arrange of mediums like canvas, varieties of | | | | developments now like printing on wallpaper. Fabric |
| papers, silk and linen and also had low ink costs. | | | | manufacturers have developed wallpaper fabric |
| Once printed, the article was normal discarded and | | | | that you can now print on. Now artists just don't |
| then mass printing would occur after checking the | | | | have to stick to a normal sized canvas they now |
| article produced by the Iris Printer was fit to do | | | | can have an entire wall. They can print murals or |
| so. Fine art prints printed from these printers | | | | photographs. |
| normally degrade and have non-longevity because | | | | For artist giclee printing is economical, affordable |
| the printers were made for proofing only and | | | | and they don't need to produce larger runs of |
| they also use dye inks. The company that | | | | four colour offset prints. They can print on |
| manufactured the Iris printers tried to reinvent | | | | necessity and manipulate image files using |
| themselves and make printers that produced fine | | | | software such as Adobe Photoshop, Corel, Ulead |
| art prints that were durable but they failed has | | | | and ArcSoft Photo studio which can improve |
| competition grew vast. The competition includes | | | | colour, size, resolution and tone. The |
| Colorspan, Epson, Canon, HP, Mimaki and Roland | | | | disadvantages of giclee printing are that it can |
| DGA. | | | | take a long time to print a print and sometimes |
| Iris proofs as what artists called them for obvious | | | | can be expensive depending on what you're |
| reasons where not called giclee prints and some | | | | printing and how big. For customers buying giclee |
| artists wanted to distinguish them from that. | | | | art prints it can be beneficial with price depending |
| Giclee prints lasts for many years. Nash came up | | | | if it's a limited edition, original or the print has been |
| with another name called digigraph to distinguish | | | | mass printed. They can buy a print that matches |
| them from industrial printing which was Iris | | | | their décor and of any size and on any |
| printing. At present giclee now stands from prints | | | | substrate. They can even get the company their |
| printed by fade - resistant archival inks including | | | | buying it from to change the colours of a print if |
| solvent inks. | | | | they wish especially if it's a bespoke giclee printing |
| Ink jet printers use a CMYK process but have | | | | company. The most important customer factor is |
| multiple cartridges for variations of each colour | | | | it last a very long time up to 75 years and this |
| based on CcMmYK (cyan, light cyan, magenta, | | | | depends on substrates used and model of the |
| light magenta, yellow and key which is black). This | | | | printer, epson printers are very good for this. |