What Is a Giclee Fine Art Print?

A giclee fine art print is a high-end reproduction of a hand-painted painting or photograph that can be printed on virtually any type of paper. A rotating drum scanner copies and stores the original piece in a safe location where the negatives can be safely stored for future reproductions, making them relatively cost-effective. These duplications are made with a specialized printer that does not use the standard dotting method of printing and instead uses colorfast ink to create a near-exact replica of the original piece.

Many people believe that owning a giclee fine art print is the next best thing to owning an original piece of art. In galleries around the world, giclee prints of well-known, well-known art pieces are used. This reproduction style allows modern artists to print high-quality copies of their original work on demand, reducing waste and making doing business with buyers more cost-effective.

The original piece must first be scanned before a giclee fine art print can be created. A drum scanner, which rotates the original piece over a large drum while small lasers copy the art, is the most common scanner used. Unlike other scanners, which only capture the basic colors and shapes in a piece, this method allows the scanner to capture even the tiniest variations in color and texture, resulting in a more detailed finished product. The negatives can be used to reproduce the same exact piece as many times as needed once the art has been scanned.

After the art has been scanned, it is printed on a specialized printer. Unlike standard ink jet printers, which spray ink through a fine screen to produce dots, the system used for a giclee fine art print sprays ink directly onto the medium using hundreds of tiny nozzles. This enables the printer to reproduce the vast majority of color variations found in original artwork. The printer can also spray multiple layers of ink, allowing it to mimic the texture of hand-painted artwork.

In addition, the ink used to create a giclee fine art print is one-of-a-kind. When kept out of direct sunlight, the ink can last anywhere from 25 to 100 years. This level of quality and durability is one of the many reasons why museums and private collectors favor this type of reproduction.

Any medium can be used to create a giclee fine art print. Printing on canvas is a popular choice among collectors and high-end artists. The art can also be reproduced on fine art paper, photo paper, or cotton paper, which are all popular options for replicating original artwork.