About Giclée Prints

Giclée (jhee-clay) is a French term meaning "to spray from a nozzle".The term was first coined in 1991 by Jack Duganne to refer to fine art prints created with digital output. The main intention of the word giclée was to distinguish "fine art prints" from those created for non-art or commercial purposes. Early giclée prints were found to be fugitive which meant that the inks faded quickly when exposed to sunlight. In the last couple of years the light fastness problem has been solved by the use of much more stable ink-sets on coated papers and canvas. A second generation of giclée printers are able to use pigmented inks which are extremely stable. The original iris printers are still able to produce the highest quality images because they use dye based inks, though the dye based inks are not as archival as pigmented inks .The technology behind this revolution is based on the power of computers combined with advances in printing techniques. Extremely fine droplets of ink can be spurted onto heavy watercolor paper or artists canvas. These droplets can be controlled by computer so that the resolution of the printed image is much finer than conventional printing. Overall, the benefits to artists and galleries are that the quality and print-on-demand features enable more fine-art prints to be available. The benefits for collectors are the superb quality, stability, and fidelity of giclée prints, along with a wider selection of images. New light fading tests from Wilhelm Imaging Research indicate that prints made with the new Epson pigmented ink on special archival paper, framed under glass, should exceed 100 years of display at an illumination level of 450 lux for 12 hours per day before noticeable fading occurs. Depending on specific media type, prints made with the new inks will likely exceed 200 years of display .( www.wilhelm-research.com )