What is a Giclée print?

Giclée is a relatively new method of producing high quality usually, limited edition prints and is often used for short print runs. The artist’s original is scanned and converted to a digital format, then printed on to fine art papers utilising specialist printers. The Giclée process is now used by many of the major publishers of fine art and prints using this process are exhibited in museums and art galleries throughout the world.

Giclée is a French term, roughly translated as ‘little squirt’ – ink is sprayed onto the substrate (fine art paper) in variable sized dots depending upon the amount of colour required using lightfast pigment-based inks

Fine art papers (the substrates) used for Giclée are produced by paper mills that also produce similar acid-free papers for artists. Suppliers of these fine art papers include Hahnemüle of Germany and St Cuthbert’s Mill in the UK.

The use of archival quality inks and papers ensures the long-term stability of the artwork produced by the Giclée process.

Prints may be hand-embellished by the artist using paint, ink and gold foil stamping for a mixed media effect. The Giclée process captures the true texture and saturates colours to faithfully reproduce the original retaining small detail, subtle tints and blends.

For those of you interested in trivia, fine art photographer Graham Nash (ex Hollies/Crosby, Stills and Nash), played a large part in the development of Giclée.