What is Giclee?
The term giclee was coined by a group of digital imaging specialists in California. It is pronounced "zhee-clay" and is a noun deriving from the French verb gicler, which means "to spray". It is often incorrectly spelled geclee or glicee.
Giclee is a high quality inkjet print created with professional grade machines and fine materials. Both inks and papers need to be rated as archival.
In addition to the tangibles, a true giclee needs to be created by professionals who understand ICC profiling and calibration.
Although in the beginning only the Iris printer was rated as a giclee quality machine, now Roland, Colorspan, Canon, HP and Epson produce printers with 6 to 12 inks.
The results are a very wide color rendition (color gamut) and very deep blacks (Dmax). The new Epson Pro inkjet printers have 3 different black ink reservoirs and yield incredible black and whites.
Epson printers are the choice of the best giclee printing ateliers in the country.
Whether it is called giclee, digiprint or high fidelity inkjet print, the result should be a vibrant, archival product with the highest fidelity to the file it is made from.
Not all Print Shops are Created Equal
Do not settle for anything but the best possible product. Many companies offer giclee printing services but do not have the necessary skills and experience to produce high end results.
With 15 years of giclee printing experience, we offer the knowledge and equipment necessary to output museum quality products that will last a lifetime.
We print unidirectionally, which means the print head sprays inks in one direction. It is more time consuming but it assures the highest possible accuracy.
A giclee is the apex of digital printmaking. It rivals and surpasses photographic and 4 color methods of reproduction.
Please read how to enhance your giclee prints.