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THE GICLÉE METHOD
A Giclée is a scanned image printed
on a high resolution, ink-jet printer. Giclée prints are advantageous
to artists who find it not feasible to mass produce their work, but want
to reproduce their art as needed. The prints are printed using dye base
or pigment based inks on archival papers, canvas, poster stock or a number
of other medias.
What is the quality of the Giclée
reproduction method? Giclées are one of the finest reproduction
methods available today. The depth of color far surpasses that of lithographs.
Lithographs use the same process as printing a magazine. Also litho inks
have dyes in them that are subject to fading. When an lithograph is printed
on a rag paper the colors are lifeless and dull because much of the ink
is absorbed into the paper. The "dot gain" causes the printed
dot to expand into the adjoining dot, this muddies the color. A water
color artist fights this when an opposite color will contaminate a color
he is laying on his paper. To counter this problem printers may print
on pulp made papers that have a coating. The coating minimizes the dot
gain, but the acid in the paper yellows and attacks the ink over time.
Giclée paper is much more substantial than lithograph prints. Digital
Scanning and proofing allows for better color fidelity on a Giclée
than lithographs. A proof can be printed in minutes on a Giclée
printer but a color proof on a litho takes a day and hundreds of dollars
for one proof. With a digital proofing you can isolate an object in the
print, color correct and run a small proof in minutes. The artist can
see the results of the corrections almost immediately.
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