Origins
The word "giclée" was created by Jack Duganne, a print maker working at Nash Editions. He wanted a name for the new type of prints they were producing on the IRIS printer, a large format high resolution industrial prepress proofing ink-jet printer they had adapted for fine art printing. He was specifically looking for a word that would not have the negative connotations of "ink-jet" or "computer generated". To make the word descriptive of ink-jet technologies he based it on the French language word "le gicleur" meaning "nozzle", or more specifically "gicler" meaning "to squirt, spurt, or spray".
Current Usage
Beside its association with IRIS prints, in the past few years, the word "giclée," as a fine art term, has come to be associated with prints using fade-resistant, archival inks (pigment based, as well as newer solvent based inks), and archival substrates primarily produced on Epson and some other types of large format printers. These printers use the CMYK color process but may have multiple cartridges for variations of each color based on the CcMmYK color model (e.g. light magenta and light cyan inks in addition to regular magenta and cyan); this increases the apparent resolution and color gamut and allows smoother gradient transitions. A wide variety of substrates are available including various textures and finishes such as matte photo paper, watercolor paper, cotton canvas, or artist textured vinyl.
Applications
Artists generally use inkjet printing to make reproductions of their original two-dimensional artwork, photographs or computer-generated art. Professionally-produced inkjet prints are much more expensive on a per-print basis than the four-color offset lithography process traditionally used for such reproductions. Four-color offset lithographic presses have the disadvantage of the full job having to be set up and produced all at once in a mass edition. With inkjet printing the artist does not have to pay for the expensive printing plate setup or the marketing and storage needed for large four-color offset print runs. This allows the artist to follow a just-in-time business model, and since he or she can print and sell each print individually in accordance with demand, inkjet printing can be an economical alternative. Inkjet printing has the added advantage of allowing artists total control of the production of their images, including the colors and the substrates on which they are printed, and it is even feasible for individual artists to own and operate their own printers.
ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giclée |