What is a Giclee´.
A certain category of fine art print is known in the art world as a Giclee´. "Giclee" (zhee-clay)
is a French term, in this case meaning, "spray of ink".
What is the process?
The cornerstone of this process is enhanced Iris digital ink
jet printers which have been specifically modified for the
rigorous and precise criteria
of fine art collectors and connoisseurs of museum quality, limited
edition prints. The printers use continuous tone technology in
which infinitely
small pixels of color are capable of rendering an amazingly smooth
and consistent image, to faithfully mirror the artists original
oil painting,
watercolor, photograph, or digital art. The substrate (material, paper,
or canvas) is affixed to a drum, and as the drum rotates at a very
high speed, individual droplets of color are sprayed on to the
surface at
a rate of 4-5 million droplets per second. Once completed, a 34" x
46" image is comprised of almost 20 billion droplets of ink. In
this process, we use the most archival, water based organic inks available
in the world. We then complete the print by applying UV light resistant
and light stabilizer post-coatings. The results are highly prized museum
quality prints, in a limited edition.
Why is Giclee´ printing the way
of the future?
The apparent resolution of the digital print is 1,800 dots per
inch, which is higher than a traditional lithographic print
and has a wider
range of color than serigraphy. Giclee´ prints render deep saturated
colors and have a beautiful painterly quality that retains minute detail,
subtle tints and blends
A variety of substrates can be used. These include archival watercolor
paper (such as Arches, Somerset, Laguna) glossy paper and cotton
duck canvas. The prints may be hand embellished by the artist, to
substantially increase the value, using any of a variety of media
such as paint, ink, or gold leaf stamping for mixed media effect.
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