“Fifty years from now nobody is going to find your emails, lovingly tied with string, under your bed.” – Bill Moran, Blinc Publishing, Saint Paul , MN

The same could be said of the vast majority of digital art today. Or, what might be worse, inkjet prints of favorite images that will be faded to nothing in 50 years. Not every snapshot cries out for museum-quality printing, but what about your favorites from a wedding, or an image you love but are tired of seeing on a TV screen. Digital photography is a wonderful thing, but there is something to be said for converting those fleeting electrons into something substantial; something you can touch and doesn’t require electricity to view.

How this works

Gicler is a French verb meaning, literally, “to spurt.” Giclée (the past tense of gicler) has been adopted by artists and marketeers to describe how an inkjet print was produced. This is equivalent to saying “oil on canvas” or “gelatin silver print.” It doesn’t describe a brand of printer, paper, or ink. What it refers to is a process and an intent. The process is all about quality and longevity, the intent is to make the best print possible that will last the longest amount of time.

Anybody can buy an expensive printer and although software is making quality easier to achieve this is still a process that requires an operator (an actual human!) who knows something about translating digital bits into ink on paper and will do more than press the “print” button. That’s what you’re really paying for. Anybody advertising Giclée prints must be using archival inks, archival paper, and a kick-butt printer, but the quality of the final print is the responsibility of the operator.

The most important part of the process is the original scan or the original photograph. The best printer in the world will produce lackluster results if the source file lacks information. As you might expect this is the most expensive piece of equipment with proper scanners routinely costing $45,000 or more and is best given to services who specialize in producing high-quality scans. I can arrange this, or you are free to use anybody you choose.

Once your art is scanned or photographed the files come to me and i then do my best to translate those files into actual ink on paper or canvas.

Curious? Send me an email, find out more.