Giclée Printing

(history courtesy of WikipediA)

The earliest prints to be called "Giclée" were created in the early 1990s on the Iris Graphics models 3024 and 3047 continuous inkjet printers (the company was later taken over by Scitex, now owned by HP). Iris printers were originally developed to produce prepress proofs from digital files for jobs where color matching was critical such as product containers and magazine publication. Their output was used to check what the colors would look like before mass production began. Much experimentation took place to try to adapt the Iris printer to the production of color-faithful, aesthetically pleasing reproductions of artwork. Early Iris prints were relatively fugitive and tended to show color degradation after only a few years. The use of newer inksets and printing substrates has extended the longevity and light fastness of Iris prints.

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 (including solvent inks) and the inkjet printers that use them. 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. Indeed, a new industry has been created in supplying the media for this emerging market.

Giclée Set Up & Reproductions:
Contek specializes in fine art giclée reproductions.  We establish a close relationship with each one of our client artists seeking to expand their work revenue by making it available in form of fine art reproductions. Below are the steps involved in the process of creating a giclée:

Artwork Capture:
The first step in order to make a giclée is to perform a capture of your artwork, and there are different ways to do this:

• film
• positive slide
• scan
• digital capture

The method used to record your artwork will directly influence the reproduction quality. High resolution digital files are ideal for giclée reproductions, since they save additional steps in the process of digitizing and can capture the broadest range of image information. Film and slides are limited by the process and base exposure of the initial recording. The slide or film must then also be scanned to render better results.

Digital files are produced in different sizes and qualities; At Contek we perform the following:

Color Correction, Soft-Proofing and Proofing:
Is the process of preparation, correcting and fine tuning of the file for optimal output to a selected paper, media or canvas. This step is crucial in order to create a giclée reproduction as close as possible to the original.

1. Our technician will correct the color and feel of the digital capture to the media that you chose for printing.
2. Once corrected, we set up an appointment with you to approve a soft-proof.
3. After your approval we either print a test strip or the final.

You need to be aware of the limitations of the media and files while matching your artwork to the original. Services are charged on a -per hour- basis and vary depending on the complexity of the artwork.

Printing:
Once all of the above steps are completed we proceed to print the output by demand; you can order 1 or as many reproductions you may need.