Giclée (pronounced “zhee-clay“) is a method of producing high quality reproductions of artwork using special ink-jet printers.
The term “giclée” was coined in the 1990′s when the technology was first developed. It is derived from the French words for “nozzle” and “to spray.” Giclées have since become the standard for reproductions in museums and fine art galleries.
Giclées allow an artist to affordably produce on-demand artwork without the necessity of doing expensive print runs and keeping a large inventory.
The artist also has finer control over the colors, sizes and quality and can even choose from a variety of substrates such as canvas, paper, watercolor paper and even vinyl.
If the original piece of art is a painting, drawing, collage, photograph, etc. then the first step is to get a digital copy.
Once we have a digital copy, we can use software like Photoshop to prep the piece for printing and make any changes or corrections.