Giclee

What is a Giclee?

A giclee (zhee-CLAY) from ukphotogallery.com, is an individually produced, high-resolution reproduction done on a special large format printer, at no less than 720 dots per inch. Uk Photo Gallery conforms to the Fine Art Publishers code for producing these prints. Giclees are produced from digital scans of existing artwork.

Giclees can be printed on any number of media, from canvas to watercolour paper to transparent acetates. Giclees are superior to traditional lithography in several ways. The colours are brighter, last longer, and are so high-resolution that they are virtually continuous tone, rather than tiny dots. The range, or "gamut" of colour for giclees is far beyond that of lithography, and details are crisper.

 Lithography uses tiny dots of four colours--cyan, magenta, yellow and black--to fool the eye into seeing various hues and shades. Colours are "created" by printing different size dots of these four colours.

Giclees use inkjet technology, but far more sophisticated than your desktop printer. The process employs six, nine or twelve colours of lightfast, pigmented inks and finer, more numerous, and replaceable printheads resulting in a wider colour palate, and the ability to use various media to print on. The ink is sprayed onto the page, actually mixing the colour on the page to create true shades and hues. The inks used by us are guaranteed lightfast for 75 years under normal conditions.

They are priced midway between original art and regular limited edition lithographs. Limited edition litho prints are usually produced in editions of 500-1000 or more, all at once; but giclees rarely exceed 50-100 reproductions, one at a time.

Giclees were originally developed as a proofing system for lithograph printing presses, but it became apparent that the presses were having a hard time delivering the quality and colour of the giclee proofs. They evolved into the new darlings of the art world. They are coveted by collectors for their fidelity and quality, and desired by galleries because they don't have to be produced in huge quantities with their large layout of capital and storage.

In addition, Giclees are produced directly from a digital file, saving generations of detail-robbing negatives and printing plates, as with traditional printing. Uk Photo Gallery has its own giclee printer and operator, allowing for more flexibility, experimentation, quick turnaround and lower costs to our customers.