Giclée printing was invented in the early 1990’s by Graham Nash (of Crosby, Stills & Nash fame) and his associate Mac Holbert, who discovered new ways to use their Iris inkjet printer. Early Iris printers were developed specifically for the digital proofing market, but Nash & Holbert completely revamped theirs to produce the first Giclée print. Since then, Giclée output has improved with every new generation of inkjet printers from manufacturers such as Canon, Epson, and HP.

Giclée is an invented name to describe the making of fine art prints using ink-jet printers. “Giclée”, is a French verb meaning “to spray” (as from a nozzle), and was coined as a printing term by Jack Duganne, a printmaker working in the field. The intent of the name was to distinguish commonly known industrial “Iris proofs” from the type of fine art prints artists were producing on those same types of printers. The name was originally applied only to fine art prints created on the Iris printers but now the term is used for archival prints coming from any of the high quality pigmented ink printers.

What is Giclée Printing?

Giclée printing is a great opportunity for printers to diversify their revenue stream. Artists seeking reproductions of their artwork are now looking for print-on-demand solutions, and, with Giclée, artists can have their original paintings scanned and printed to create limited-edition prints for a fraction of the cost of traditional printing. The growing interest in Giclée—which closely replicates original paintings on either archival paper or canvas—has created dozens of ‘fine art printing’ companies.

Giclée prints are beautiful, high-quality and durable, and can come from original paintings, photography, or digital artwork. Artists can produce several prints, hand embellish them, sign and number them, and then sell them. They can produce small numbers at a time, and will always be ready to produce more.

How does it work?

The first step is to “digitize” the artwork by using either a scanner or a digital camera to produce a raw or tiff image file. When using any camera, a proper lighting set-up is critical to achieving good results. When reproducing a highly-textured oil or acrylic painting, do spend a little extra time to get the lighting just right, in order to enhance the 3D effect of the brush strokes. I’ve had customers’ faces six inches away from these kinds of Giclée prints, wondering if they were the originals—that’s how good they can look! If you don’t have access to a hi-resolution scanner or camera, consider out-sourcing this service to a photo studio.

Next, load the digitized picture into a graphics program such as Photoshop to size, crop, modify background, do color adjustments, and “clean up” the image. All adjustments are done in this step.

Now you’re ready to print the picture. You should first print two different 5” x 7” test prints to ensure that you have correct color settings. This also gives the customer two options to choose from. Check the printer settings to ensure the output quality is what you’re looking for. You may wish to create a custom profile for the paper or canvas you’re using.

After the customer has approved the test print, you may print on canvas or watercolor paper as many prints as are requested. Keep your digital files organized so you’ll be ready when the customer asks for more prints.

The Finishing Touch

Moisture or UV rays can damage Giclée prints, so you’d be wise to treat the surface after letting the print cure for at least 24 hours. The inks are water-based and will smear if liquids are accidentally splashed on the surface. Apply a spray inkjet liquid laminate over the artwork. It will not only protect the print, but it will give it a lovely “work of art” finish. If you would like to give your print a brush stroke effect, visit your local art store and purchase a good quality textured gel medium and brush it on.

Research before investing

You can spend between $2495 and $25,000 for a wide-format Giclée digital printer. Do your research so you don’t spend more than is necessary! You’re welcome to e-mail me if you have any further questions.