Prints refer to any sort of reproduction of an artwork made with a printer, to exactly resemble an original piece. Prints have a much lower price point that an original artwork, allowing a wider group of people to enjoy and purchase art, without sacrificing on quality.
Giclee is a French term meaning “to spray”, referring to how a printer works and how giclee prints are usually produced, however not all printers can produce giclee prints... First introduced around 1990, they key requirements for a giclee print are:
- Resolution: the resolution level is measured by dots per inch (DPI). The more DPI, the higher the image resolution is and the print will be sharper and more detailed, even up close. For giclée prints, the image resolution has to be a minimum of 300 DPI.
- Ink: ink with a base of high quality color pigmented ink (rather than dye-based inks) which can stand the test of time and provide accurate color matching to the original artwork.
- Paper: of archival quality - acid-free which does not degrade over time. Can be gloss, matte or cotton canvas.
- Printer type: for giclée printing, you don’t use a standard desktop inkjet printer - the printer must be a wide-format inkjet printer.