Giclée pronounced as ‘zhee-klay’ according to the dictionary is ‘a printmaking method using an ink-jet printer for photographic images of paintings to produce high quality reproductions’. Technically Giclée can be defined as an excellent quality copy of an artwork or a photograph that is made through high-end inkjet printing techniques by using the highest quality of pigment or archival inks that has the ability to stay true or stronger, without degradation, for a good amount of time.
Giclée Prints have widely gained popularity in the print market of today for:
- Being generated from very high-resolution digital scans of the original artwork or the photograph
- Being printed with the highest quality pigmented ink on a variety of substrates, that include but not limited to canvas prints, photo-base paper, cloth, metal and many other materials
- Providing the highest value of color accuracy than any other mean of print reproduction in the market till today
- Producing quality prints in huge sizes
- Having a remarkably long life of around 75 – 100 years as compared to other forms of reproductions which wear-off and fade away with time
- Being reproduced to almost any size required
- Offering a wide variety of base material choices, thus giving the artist an ability to customize the prints according to usage
The Birth of Giclée
Giclée prints have their roots from around the end of 1980s. At that time IRIS Printers (born in the 70’s era) were commercially introduced to the market bringing a revolution in the print media industry. These IRIS printers were widely used by the commercial printing plants and pre-press shops. The main purpose of these printers was to create proofs before the final production. These IRIS proofs helped the clients to have an idea about how the final prints will look like in real life after the production process is over. The client’s approval before the final production of prints helped these printing business as well as the clients to save a lot of time, effort and money. The main problem with these prints was that their colors did not last for long time and faded away as the time passed. The actions taken in order to solve this problem led to the birth of Giclée.
The history of Giclée traces down to two great men named Graham and Mac. They were amongst the first ones who developed this process of fine art printing, yet giving birth to the first fine art studio in the history known as ‘Nash Editions’. The earliest prints classified as ‘Giclée’ were created in the early 1990s after much experimentation and hard work. The Giclée production was not based on the introduction of a new printer technology but was a slight change in the materials used in production of prints at that time – the inks used. The ink-set that was used by the existing IRIS printers at that time were dye based. Dyes in general are non- resistant to light or moisture and tend to migrate or move through the material, they are applied to, from areas of high density to areas of low density. The actual change that produced high quality and lasting giclée prints was the introduction of actual pigments in the ink. These pigments when introduced to a high quality substrate resulted into prints that had a longer life and were much closer to the original.
With more and more advancement and refinement in the areas of printers, inks and mediums used, by the middle of 1990s, the longevity and light fastness of the Giclée prints was enhanced and they were produced in large sizes of 34 inches by 46 inches. The printers that were now much advanced in technology could take in a wide range of substrates including fine art paper, canvas, cloth or even metal.
The Birth of Giclée prints revolutionized the print making world. Thus Giclée printing is still one of the the most popular forms of digital printing or fine art reproduction today.
The Term Giclée
The term Giclée is a neologism. Neologism according to its dictionary meanings is a new word or phrase that is still not a part of the main language but is in the process of becoming a part of it or entering into it. The question that arises in our minds is: How did this word come into being?
In 1991 Duganne was the person who had this brilliant name spark ‘Giclée’ in his mind. He was basically looking for a revolutionary new name for art print reproductions that were totally different from the print productions that were produced in the market at that time.
He aimed to look for a name that would be generic enough to cover the inkjet technology used for printing of the prints and yet have a futuristic touch to it. His goal was to give such a name that could give a total new dimension to the way people looked at digital prints available in the market. It was for this reason he avoided the use of words like a ‘computer’ or ‘digital’ in the name.
He took the initiative to name these new large-format and high-resolution inkjet prints based on a French word ‘gicleur’. Gicleur (the verb form gicler which means ‘to squirt, spurt, or spray’) means ‘nozzle’. The relevance of this name with the print was that all the printers that printed these pieces had nozzles which sprayed pigment on the substrate. Hence the word ‘Giclée’ can be called as a creative derivation by Duganne.
Graham Nash and Mac Holbert also used their side of creativity and came up with the word "digigraph’. This word was much appreciated by the photographers as it was closed to the term ‘photograph’. This new term though did not catch much appreciation among the artist and printmaker community who were already comfortable and had adopted the term Giclée for their prints.
The word Giclée got famous in a very short time and people started recognizing printed art as Giclée. Even today Giclée is the word used for digital fine art and photography prints.
Is Giclée a Brand?
In the world of today Giclée is the word that is widely used to describe good quality art prints that are produced by high end printers with good quality of ink and base and that will not fade away and last for a much longer time period. This term is now famous worldwide and for many the term "Giclée" has become a generic word that they have started associating with printmaking. As with any famous brand people start expecting certain qualities and properties it must possess, they started associating high quality, digitally produced fine-art prints as Giclées.
Giclée is definitely not a trademark and nor a brand. It is just a term that was created to distinguish the new high-quality long lasting fine art prints from the already existing prints that were low in quality and degraded easily with time. As it was a simple term that was given to the latest fine art prints, Giclée cannot be considered as a brand at all. Though in some ways it can be used to distinguish a certain type of print available in the market from the other type, it can be classed as a ‘marketing term or label’.
As nobody owned Giclée as it was not a brand, the problem was that everything printed in the market was then associated with the term "Giclée". In 2001 The Giclée Printers Association came with an idea to remove this confusion of 'every print being called as a Giclée' and created a set of standards. These standards were specially formulated for Reproduction Printing only. Printmakers in the market whose reproductions met the standard that were set by the Giclée Printers Association were allowed to display the logo of ‘Tru Giclée’ which allowed the customers to identify the quality of reproduction print.
The standards set by the association were very tough and high due to which only a few companies were able to meet the criteria of ‘Tru Giclée’ due to which in 2003 ‘Tru Décor’ was formed by the Giclée Printers Association. This offered a breathing space to all the print makers at that time and was like a breeze of fresh air for the huge decor-art market. Since the inception of giclée many variations of the same concept entered into the market time to time and associated themselves with it. Platinum Giclée and Epson’s ‘Ultra Giclée’ are a few of the many brands that were evolved from Giclée prints.
What makes a Giclée
The production process of Giclée prints can be explained as:
The Scanned Image: For producing a giclée print, the original art-work or photograph is scanned into the computer. The digital images are then scaled up or down according to the requirement. The images can also be touched up in case they require some improvement. The scanned image is then reproduced through a printer.
Machine used: Giclée printing does not involve the use of screen or other mechanical devices. It only requires a Specific specialized extremely professional 8-Colour to 12-Colour ink-jet printer. Many companies in the market compete against each other to bring the latest market researches in the form of latest technologies in their printing products (printers). A few names include Epson, MacDiarmid and Hewlett-Packard.
Inks Used: The inks used in producing giclée prints are special and do not fade with time. Special precautions have to be taken in order to ensure that the print stays true for longer times. Exposure to direct sunlight for larger amounts of time can reduce the life of the print. In other cases the print can stay true for up to more than 25 years.
Substrate Used: Giclée prints can be produced on almost any kind of paper or medium of your choice. Different printers available in the market offer different variety of mediums you can choose from. The choice of material plays a very important role in the finally produced print. For example a giclée print produced from a ‘water colored art-work on water color paper’ on a water color paper will be almost indistinguishable from the original. Thus the choice of material plays a great role in the effect of the final print that comes out.
Giclée prints today
Most artists and photographers today have embraced the Giclée Technology because of its convenience and exceptional results. A few benefits are listed as under:
- Limited edition prints have become more accessible and affordable due to this technology
- It has provided convenience to the artists who do not want to do mass production of their work. They can now reproduce their art as needed, when needed or on-demand of the customer
- Archived files used for printing do not deteriorate in quality with time as the previously used negatives and films did
- The up-front mass production cost or investment is fairly reduced as one does not need to produce in bulk
- Giclée prints can be reproduced to almost any size, onto any media thus giving the artist an ability to customize their prints according to the specific equipment’s of the client
- ‘Real Art Prints’ are available at affordable price to the people who are interested in art but cannot afford to buy original art prints.
Today, giclée printing is widely associated with the industries of fine art and photography. Giclée prints today are produced through high quality printers using the inks that are extremely fade resistant, containing s colored pigments to produce prints that are very near to the original. Different variations of these prints are created according to the interest of people including black and white as well as colored giclée prints. These prints have played a great role in the marketing industry as well as in home and commercial décor. These Giclée prints are also widely used in various collections in many large museums as well as places of public interest. The work of various artists has now also become much accessible to art loving people through these prints.
