GICLEE

Giclee (pronounced "zhee-clay") is a French word meaning "to spray" or "to squirt" that describes a revolutionary process used to produce fine art prints. This medium was originally developed in 1989 as a plateless method of fine art reproduction.

The Giclee process begins after the original print is scanned directly by a high resolution scanner, or a transparency is produced from the artist's original print or painting. Special software programs are used to manipulate the attributes of the digitized images to the artist's requirements: colour, definition, contrast, etc.

The Giclee printer sprays microscopic droplets of ink (as small as 4 pecolitres) or dye onto the paper or canvas at a rate of millions of drops a second. Today, the printers are usually seven colour printers. Seven colours being sprayed from different nozzles. The end result is a virtually continuous toned print. Each print then receives a fine U-V coating to protect the image from degrading over time.