What is a Giclée print?
Images: Vanessa Chrystie
The word Giclée (pronounced Gee Clay) was created by Jack Duganne, a print maker working at Nash Editions, the world’s first professional fine-art digital printmaking company.
He was specifically looking for a word that would not have negative connotations of “inkjet” or “computer generated”, so he came up with the word Giclée.
Based on the French word Gicleur, which means “nozzle”, the verb form gicler means “to squirt, spurt or spray”, Giclée, is used to describe a fine art digital printing process combining pigment based inks with archival paper to achieve Giclée prints of superior archival quality, light fastness and stability.
Our Giclée prints are created using an Epson 9880 with Epson Ultrachrome K3 inks which, with the 8 channel print head, is capable of producing an extremely wide tonal range and colour gamut.
The process involves squirting or spraying microscopic dots of pigment-based ink onto high quality art paper or canvas. The image is colour corrected to attain the closest possible match to the original work, if required. The digital information is fine tuned to the type of paper or surface on which the image is to be printed, further ensuring fidelity to the original.
Giclées are printed on a variety of substrates or mediums, the most common being art papers or canvas. Image permanence is a concern to artist and collectors. Estimates are based on laboratory simulations of ageing to give a fade & colour shift resistance of up to 200 years in ideal conditions, tests developed and conducted by Epson.
Reproducing prints this way can be of an advantage to artists, gallerys and photographers who find it unfeasible to mass-produce identical edition prints at any point in the future.
Image © wert
Sample Swatch of Substrates
Swatches of substrates are available for 8€ plus postage. (To order simply email us on our contact page).
Substrates
1: Backlit Film 220gsm 2: Hemp 290 gsm 3: FineArt Pearl 285 gsm 4: FineArt Baryta Satin 300 gsm 5: Photo Rag Metallic 340 gsm 6: Smooth Art 270 gsm 7: Velvet Texured Art 270 gsm 8: Metallic 255 gsm 9: Poly-Canvas 280 gsm 10: Cotton Poly-Canvas 380 gsm 11: Silver Pearlescent-Canvas 425 gsm
Duratrans
Janis Painting ©wert
Duratran (short for Durable Transparency) is a translucent-base film consisting of a translucent-base material, which allows light to diffuse through the image.
Put your images in the spotlight with new super-slim LED lightboxes where the image can be evenly lit from edge to edge. Especially suitable for large exhibition displays, giving real bedazzle to your images.
