Fine Art Giclee Printing

"A great artist can paint a great picture on a small canvas," said Charles Dudley Warner. This quote is really meaningful, because it implies that whatever you paint on a canvas is important and substantial to you, as the artist. This means that the artist who paints is not dependent on his or her canvas, but on the quality of the picture in mind. Unfortunately, water damage and natural decay may occur on your chosen canvas. You may want to reproduce your paintings with the same quality on various types of materials. How can you mass produce artwork while keeping the quality and the brilliance of the original painting? Fine art Giclee printing can.

Fine art Giclee printing keeps the vibrancy of the original painting by printing on various substances with pigment inks. The term, Giclee, is pronounced "zhee-clay" coming from the French word, glicer, meaning "to squirt." It is a feminine noun, meaning "a spray or spurt of liquid." The term was coined by Jack Duganne, in 1991. He was trying to set his printing method, fine art Giclee printing, apart from industrial Iris proofs which were being made versus the ink jet printing of individual artists. While the name originally meant the separation of printer types, later the term came to mean any high quality ink jet prints.

Pigment prints is another term for fine art Giclee printing, meaning that the print is made solely out of pigments. Pigments are particles suspended in ink, providing the colour. This type of pigment ink printing has been around since the mid-1900's. Dyes inks have been around longer, since the 12th century, BC. Dyes are have a greater colour range, are less expensive, and are more consistent than pigments, but are rarely used, because pigments are more collators. Pigment inks and in turn fine art Giclee printing is superior to silver-halide and metal based printing. Silver-halide is used in printing film and photographic paper. However, it is extremely soluble in water, as are metal based printing. Pigment prints are water resistant and fade resistant. The colour of a pigment based ink will last and may be put in the sun with no adverse effects.

Fine art Giclee printing can be printed on a wide variety of canvas types: matte photo paper, watercolour paper, cotton canvas, silk, wood, artist textured vinyl, metal, ceramic, or glass. The very wide variety of mediums to print on make fine art Giclee printing a good choice for an artist who is attempting to get their art out in a myriad of ways and to a wider audience.

So don't be discouraged by the fancy name, fine art Giclee printing is just a word to describe ink jet or pigment printing. Fine art Giclee printing technique has been around since the mid 1900's but the term has been around since the 1990's. Remember that dye printing is an option but is less colourfast and soluble in water, making it an option, but not one used by many artists for their prints. Also know there are many more materials to print on for fine art Giclee printing. Don't forget your choice of printer type shouldn't change your artistic vision!