If you shop for art prints online, you will meet the word giclée. It appears on listings from museum shops to marketplace sellers, usually with a higher price beside it. It sounds technical and French, and few people selling it explain it. This post does.
The short answer
A giclée is a high-quality inkjet print of an artwork. That is all the word means at root. In practice, it is used for inkjet prints made to a fine art standard: a high-resolution file, pigment inks, archival paper or canvas, and a professional printer with a wide range of colours.
It is pronounced zhee-KLAY.
Where the word came from
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, a few printmakers in California began using large, expensive inkjet machines to print artwork. The machines had been built for proofing in the commercial printing trade. The results were good, but the art world was suspicious of anything that came out of a computer. "Inkjet print" or "computer print" sounded cheap.
In 1991 a printmaker named Jack Duganne wanted a better name for these prints for an exhibition. He took a French word connected with spraying, from the nozzle that sprays the ink, and came up with giclée. The name caught on. It gave fine art inkjet printing a term of its own.
What people usually mean by it
There is no legal or official definition. No body certifies a print as a giclée. Among printmakers, though, the word normally implies four things.
- A high-resolution source. The file is large enough to print at the chosen size without visible pixels, commonly 300 pixels per inch at print size.
- Pigment inks. Inks come in two kinds. Dye inks are colour dissolved in liquid. They are bright but fade sooner. Pigment inks are fine solid particles suspended in liquid. They resist light far better.
- Archival material. Acid-free paper or canvas that will not yellow or become brittle. Often cotton rag paper.
- A professional printer. A machine with eight to twelve ink colours, where an office printer has four. More inks give smoother gradients and a wider range of colour.
A print that meets all four, kept out of direct sun, can last for many decades without visible fading.
The catch
Because nobody controls the word, anyone can use it. Some sellers call any inkjet print a giclée, including ones made with dye ink on ordinary poster paper. The label on its own tells you little. It can mean a museum-quality print, and it can mean marketing.
So ask about the things behind the word.
Questions that tell you more than the label
- What is it printed on? The paper weight, the finish, and whether it is acid-free. Or for canvas, what the canvas is made of.
- What kind of ink?
- What finish? Matte, satin or gloss.
- How is a canvas built? The depth of the frame, the wood, and how the corners are finished.
- Who made the artwork? Is it original work, or a stock image?
- What happens if it arrives damaged or faulty?
A seller who answers these plainly is giving you more than one who only says giclée. See what to check before buying canvas art online.
Giclée and other kinds of print
| Type | How it is made | Typical use |
|---|---|---|
| Giclée, or fine art inkjet | Inkjet, one at a time, on archival material | Art prints, photographs, short runs |
| Offset lithograph | Ink transferred from plates on a press, in large runs | Mass-market posters, books, magazines |
| Screen print | Ink pushed through a stencil, one colour at a time | Gig posters, graphic prints, t-shirts |
| Photographic print | Light-sensitive paper exposed and developed | Photographs |
| Standard digital print | Inkjet or laser, on ordinary paper | Everyday posters and flyers |
None of these is simply better. A screen print has flat, strong colour and a hand-made quality. An offset poster is cheap and consistent. A fine art inkjet print gives the most accurate colour and the finest detail, and it can be made one at a time. That last point is why it suits digital artwork and print on demand.
Is a giclée an original?
No. It is a reproduction of an image. With a painting, the giclée is a print of a photograph or scan of the painting. With digital art, the position is a little different. The artwork was made on a computer and there is no physical original. The print is the form in which the work exists as an object. See collecting original digital art from an independent studio.
Some giclées are sold as limited editions, numbered and signed. The limit is a decision by the artist. It affects the price and the rarity, and it has nothing to do with print quality.
Does it matter for you?
It depends on what you are buying for.
- If you are collecting, or buying a print to keep for life, the materials matter. Ask the questions above.
- If you are decorating a room, what matters is that the print looks good, suits the wall, and holds up for years in normal conditions. Many prints do that without the word giclée on them.
- In either case, how you treat it matters as much as how it was made. Any print fades in direct sun. Any paper suffers in damp. See canvas care: cleaning, sunlight and humidity.
What we say about our own prints
We don't use the word giclée on our listings. It has no fixed meaning, and we would sooner describe what you get.
- Canvas: printed to order and stretched over a 1.25-inch pine frame, with rubber bumpers on the back and hardware for hanging. See ready to hang explained and what archival means on a canvas.
- Posters: printed to order on matte paper. See matte vs glossy prints.
- Framed posters: the same matte print in a black or white frame, ready to hang.
Every piece is printed one at a time when you order it, from original artwork made by our studio. See how a Kiyo Arts piece is made. The material details for each product are on its product page.
Other terms you will see
- Archival: made to last, with stable inks and acid-free material.
- Acid-free: paper treated so that it will not yellow.
- Gsm: grams per square metre, the weight of paper. Higher is thicker.
- Gallery wrap: canvas stretched round the frame so that the image or a border covers the sides.
- Open edition: printed without a limit on the number.
- Limited edition: printed in a fixed number.
The summary
Giclée means a fine art inkjet print. At its best, the word stands for pigment inks, archival material and careful printing. It is not regulated, so judge a print by what the seller tells you about paper, ink and construction, and by how they deal with problems.
Browse the canvas art and poster prints collections.