Gicleé prints are a highly collectible, well established medium in the fine-art community and have a life expectancy that is in some cases longer than the original artwork. These prints are commonly referred to as “archival quality.” Life expectancy for a high quality well made Gicleé print can be over 100 years according to the rating published by the Wilhelm Imaging Research studies measuring lightfast ratings.

The word gicleé (zhee-CLAY) is a French noun meaning “a spray or spurt of liquid”. A Gicleé print is an individually produced, high-resolution, high-fidelity reproduction created on a special large format printer. Gicleé prints are produced from digital scans of existing artwork. They are produced directly from a digital file, saving generations of detail-robbing negatives and printing plates, as with traditional printing.

Gicleé prints can be printed on various surfaces; some on canvas, watercolor paper, luster photo paper, parchment and others. Gicleé prints are superior to traditional lithography in several ways. They are priced between original art and regular limited edition lithographs. Limited edition litho prints are usually produced in editions of 500-1000 or more, printed all at once; but gicleé prints rarely exceed 50-100 reproductions, printed one at a time. The colors are brighter, last longer, and have such high-resolution that they are virtually continuous tone, rather than tiny dots. The range of color for gicleé prints exceeds that of lithography, and details are crisper.

Gicleé prints use inkjet technology, but are far more sophisticated than a desk top printer. Six colors (light cyan, cyan, light magenta, magenta, yellow and black) of lightfast, pigmented inks are used along with fine, numerous, replaceable printheads, the result is a wider color range. The ink is sprayed onto the page, actually mixing the color on the page to create true shades and hues and values.

Gicleé prints are appearing in the finest galleries and museums such as: The Lourvre Museum, The British Museum, The National Art Museum, The New York Metropolitan Museum, San Francisco Museum of Art and the Washington Post collection. There is no finer medium for Collectors to date than the gicleé print process for fine art.

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Western Art and Poetry
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Gerald, Missouri 63037
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Note: These pictures are all original works of art and, as such, are covered by Copyright law. They are not for public use without the written permission of the artist. Thank you.