Printing Method
A giclée is a limited edition fine art print produced with continuous tone ink-jet technology on a variety of media. Giclée (French - to squirt) is an exciting new medium for both artists and photographers because of its unparalleled quality, longevity and the desirability of printing-on-demand. Whether producing an original, enhancing an image or reproducing original art, the Giclée process will render an image of exceptional clarity.
Producing a Giclée print is a slow and meticulous process to create museum quality prints. The technology calls for special equipment and techniques to obtain the best color accuracy, sharpness, continuous color tone and artistic interpretation available in fine art prints.
Giclée prints are widely accepted at museums and galleries. Many museums in the United States and abroad have either mounted exhibitions of Giclée prints or purchased prints for their permanent collections. These include: the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York), the Guggenheim (New York), The Museum of Fine Art (Boston), The Philadelphia Museum, and The Smithsonian Institute.
Archival Inks
Archival Pigment inks: The newest archival ink is made from 100% pigment; hence the name Pigment Ink, rather than Pigmented. Dye is unnecessary to create color brightness because a unique micro-dispersion of extremely fine pigment particles allows an extraordinary amount of colorant to be used. They print with practically no metamerism, and offer the best combined longevity and color gamut. Permanence, or how long a displayed print will last before noticeable fading. In a recent study, Henry Wilhelm, a leading authority on photo longevity, projected archival inks to last for up to 92 years.
Archival Museum Paper
Although there are many options in selecting paper a coated watercolor museum digital art paper is the conservator's paper of choice: 100% cotton fibers that are lignin-free, acid-free and chlorine free; archival buffering to guard against atmospheric acidity during long-term storage; and the absence of optical brighteners that can break down and change color over time.