About Giclee Prints

Giclee is pronounced “zhee-clay” (from the French word ‘to spray’, as from a nozzle). Giclee was first coined by Jack Duganne in 1991, and is recognised in the fine art world as describing an advanced process for generating extremely high quality reproductions of fine artworks.

A unique feature of Giclee reproductions is the unprecedented levels of permanency that are achieved with Giclee inks. The Blue Wool Scale is the standard by which lightfastness is measured (1 for low and 8 for high). A strong resistance to fading has now been achieved, giving results better than 6 on the Blue Wool Scale. Data from Wilhelm Imaging Research Institute states emphatically that Giclee prints are of archival quality, and reports that the permanency of the colour exeeds that of pigments used by artists on original paintings, and that by being printed on high grade acid free art papers can be printed as limited editions.

This results in a Giclee print being valued as an art work in itself, much like lithographic print, and can definitely be seen as an important addition to anyones collection of art in representing the scope and development of an artists work.

A Giclee print is an interpretation of an original – an absolute replica is impossible. But with one or two proofs and careful colour correction using calibrated monitors, a very close reproduction is achievable. With this demanding work it is more important to establish a good working relationship with the artist, whereby every effort and decision is jointly made in order to produce the best possible result.

The 7 colour printer is driven by a sophisticated colour controller that interprets RGB photoshop files providing an exceptionally wide colour range, and from the first print to the 100th, colour consistency is guaranteed, even a print produced six months later will match the original.

Different print resolutions can be selected, depending on the kind of image and the size at which it is to be output. it is only necessary to print at the highest resolution for smaller images that will be scrutinised at a closer viewing distance (smaller photographic work for instance).

For an A3 size print a 40mb file will be sufficient, and for an A0 size print (1 square metre) the file should be around 90mb.

For more information on Giclee printing email: promprint@btconnect.com or phone (0044) 01242 235926

To buy Gilcee prints of my paintings please see the Sales page.