The Art of Giclée |
With the advent of Giclée (pronounced zhee-clay), the art of fine art printing has become even more precise. Giclée is a French word meaning "spraying of ink". A Giclée print is visually exquisite as well as technically amazing being unsurpassed for brilliant true color and razor sharp detail. The latest advancements in the Giclée process are the work of a sophisticated fine art production facility that utilizes the highest resolution digital printers. First, a digital scan (or transparency) is taken of the original. Each piece of paper or canvas is directly hand-mounted onto a drum that rotates during printing. A fine stream of ink -- more than 4 million droplets per second-- is sprayed onto archival paper or canvas. Exact calculations of hue, value and density direct the ink of four nozzles. This produces a combination of 512 chromatic changes, (with over 3 million colors possible ) of highly saturated, nontoxic water based ink. Once completed an image is comprised of almost 20 billion droplets of ink. The latest Giclée Printing Technology enhanced the standard 4-color process to an 8-color process. The resulting reproduction has no perceptible dot pattern, an endless array of richly saturated color, and every nuance of the original image. The latest inks offer a 70+ year light-fastness and UV-resistance under museum archival condition. The artist's color approval and input are essential for creating custom settings for the edition. Giclée reproductions are the new standard in the art world. They have been shown at the Metropolitan Museum in New York, The Los Angeles County Museum, The British Museum and many others. |