Frequently Asked Questions

Q.What’s a giclée?

A.Start with a digital image.  Add an ink-jet printer.  Spray the ink onto a surface, in accordance with the digital image.  Result – fine art print, known as giclée.

Yes, it is more involved than that.  Technology has changed just a bit since the first giclées, or Iris Prints, came out in the early '90s.  We now have archival inks. And, according to Wikipedia (the on-line dictionary), we also have a whole new industry based on manufacturing specialized printing surfaces for giclée prints.  The result is a print that retains its integrity much longer than the first prints we had from this process.

Greenwich Workshop, the company that publishes much of the fine art you find on this site, writes of the technology used to create a giclée print.  "Each second, the ink-jet printer produces over four million droplets of ink that combine to form more than two thousand shades of color."  When you look at a giclée, you will see one of the characteristics of this type of printing is the diversity of color that can be achieved through this process.  

Q. And how do you pronounce it?

A. I’ve heard two pronunciations - the first, zē-clay, sounds like it goes to the French roots of the word.  The second, jĭ-clay, sounds more like it looks in American English.