In-house HP Designjet Z6200
Heavy duty 60in graphics arts printer with unbelievable quality and snazz.
About Giclée printing
Giclée prints are a revolutionary new way of reproducing accurately paintings, drawings or artwork and have become very popular with artist wishing to sell their art to a wider audience.
Please feel free to read on but the short of it is this - IT'S AWESOME!!!
The Definition
Giclée (zhee-klay) - The French word "Giclée" is a feminine noun that means a spray or a spurt of liquid. The word may have been derived from the French verb "gicler" meaning "to squirt". In Giclée printing, no screen or other mechanical devices are used and therefore there is no visible dot screen pattern. The image has all the tonalities and hues of the original painting.
The Term
The term "Giclée print" connotes an elevation in printmaking technology. Images are generated from high resolution digital scans and printed with archival quality inks onto various substrates including canvas, fine art, and photo-base paper. The Giclée printing process provides better colour accuracy than other means of reproduction. Archival quality ensures that the prints are light-fast and non-water soluble.
The Process
Giclée prints are created typically using professional 8-Colour to 12-Colour ink-jet printers. Among the manufacturers of these printers are vanguards such as Epson, MacDermid Colorspan, & Hewlett-Packard. These modern technology printers are capable of producing incredibly detailed prints for both the fine art and photographic markets. Giclée prints are sometimes mistakenly referred to as Iris prints, which are 4-Colour ink-jet prints from a printer pioneered in the late 1970s by Iris Graphics.
The Advantages
Giclée prints are advantageous to artists who do not find it feasible to mass produce their work, but want to reproduce their art as needed, or on-demand. Once an image is digitally archived, additional reproductions can be made with minimal effort and reasonable cost. The prohibitive up-front cost of mass production for an edition is eliminated. Archived files will not deteriorate in quality as negatives and film inherently does. Another tremendous advantage of Giclée printing is that digital images can be reproduced to almost any size and onto various media, giving the artist the ability to customize prints for a specific client.
Disadvantages
The accessibility of Giclée printing and the proliferation of Giclée prints have led to a certain amount of confusion amongst the public and suspicion from traditional artists, galleries and the art establishment.
The Quality
The quality of the Giclée print rivals traditional silver-halide and gelatin printing processes and is commonly found in museums, art galleries, and photographic galleries.
