| The word ‘giclee’
is a French word. It means a spray of liquid and is
derived from the French verb for ‘to spray’.
Originally the art of giclee printing came into
being when the makers of Iris printers felt the need
for a technology that could radically improve the
quality of prints for the creation and examination
of graphic design proofs. Consequently, this
technique which finally seemed to match their
requirements came to be known as giclee printing.
And eventually because of the superior quality of
the print, the technique came to be associated with
fine art and was dubbed ‘giclee fine art printing’.
This technique of
printing employs the use of multiple color
cartridges to allow for an extensive range of color
mixing and variations. Over time, the technique came
to be associated with fine art because of the
superior quality of the finished product. Giclee
fine art prints then became popular with artists as
well, though this was more because of the quality of
the print than the economy of production.
Fine art giclee
prints could be very expensive because with such
prints the economy of scale comes into play in the
case of graphic design where multiple copies of the
print are useful. However, for fine art, artists
would prefer to have fewer copies of the print in
circulation as rarity contributes to the value of
art. These limited edition giclee prints would not
benefit from the benefit of the economies of
wholesale production, hence costing a lot more than
a bulk-printing order. There are, however, also
another breed of artists who do put up many of their
giclee prints for sale at exhibitions.
The artist, in that
case, has decided to make affordable art available
to the masses and will hence definitely transfer the
benefit of cost reduction to the buyers. Affordable
fine art giclee prints were hence more to the
advantage of graphic designers and packaging
companies.
High quality giclee
art prints can hence be available in different style
for different purposes. One can shoose from styles
such as giclee prints on canvas, giclee wildlife
prints or watercolor giclee prints to name a few
options available.
Today, giclee
prints can be made on printers manufactured by
several top-of-the-line companies as the improved
quality of print has a great demand. Some major
companies that produce these printers are Kodak,
Hewlett-Packard, Epson and Canon. These printers
which may be either eight-color or twelve-color
ink-jet printers are capable of producing superior
quality prints. Not only are these prints enhanced
with superior color quality, they are also extremely
high on detail and allow the manufacturer to provide
this same quality irrespective of the size of the
prints or the media on which the print is being
created.
Because of the
excellence of the finished product, it is not
uncommon to see artistic giclee prints adorn the
walls of museums. This form of printing is popular
in the media industry and has a special importance
in the fields of advertising and graphic designing.
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