Giclée printing is the standard for fine art reproduction. The name comes from the French word for “to spray” — which is exactly what happens.
Ink is projected onto the paper in microscopic droplets, at a resolution high enough that the result is indistinguishable from a continuous tone image. What makes it different from standard printing is the combination of ink quality and paper. Giclée prints use pigment-based inks rather than dye-based ones. Pigment inks are more stable — they don’t fade the same way under light and humidity. Paired with archival paper, a well-made giclée print can last decades without significant colour shift.
The paper matters as much as the ink. Giclée printing works on a range of surfaces — cotton rag, fine art paper, canvas — each of which changes how the image feels. A print on cotton rag has a different texture and depth than one on coated paper. Neither is better, but they’re not the same thing.
Colour accuracy is another reason giclée has become the standard for art prints. The process allows for a wide colour gamut, meaning the printed result stays close to what was intended. Colours that would flatten or shift in standard offset printing hold their range.
It’s a slower, more expensive process than mass printing. Which is part of why it works for limited editions — you’re not printing ten thousand copies, you’re printing a hundred, carefully, on materials that are meant to last.
At Studio Ninette, our prints are produced using giclée. It’s the process that does the most justice to the work — the colours, the detail, the way the image sits on the paper.
— Studio Ninette, designed in Belgium.