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Fine Art Giclee Printing
Are you interested in selling prints of your original artwork?
Have you heard the term giclee printing, but are you confused about what Fine Art Giclee Printing is?
If so, you are not alone. In this post, you will discover what Fine Art Giclee Printing is and your options so you can make a better decision for your art business.
What Is Fine Art Giclee Printing?
Giclee Printing is defined by Wikipedia as:
“A neologism coined in 1991 by printmaker Jack Duganne for fine art digital prints made on inkjet printers. The name originally applied to fine art prints created on Iris printers in a process invented in the late 1980’s but has since come to mean any inkjet print. It is often used by artists, galleries, and print shops.”
Giclee originally referred to art prints created on IRIS printers but is now commonly used to describe fine art prints made using an inkjet printer.
Professional giclee printers produce a higher-quality print because they have up to 12 inkjets that allow the printer to reproduce the original painting’s colors.
The ink used for giclee prints is “archival inks.”
Archival inks are higher-quality inks that will last up to 90 years without fading.
Giclee printing is normally done on high-quality, acid-free paper, canvas, metal, and wood.
What Is A Giclee Print
Giclee is referred to as high-quality prints made with an inkjet using acid-free paper or other surfaces and archival inks.
Printmaker Jack Duganne coined the term Giclee (french verb to spray) in 1991 to differentiate traditional fine art prints from giclee prints. Jack wanted a way to describe his reproductions as gallery quality.
Inkjet printers became popular in the 1980s but just because a print is produced with an inkjet printer does not mean that it is a giclee print.
What separates an inkjet print from a giclee print is the ink, paper, resolution, and the printer.
To read more visit, What Are Giclee Prints.
Fine art prints also refer to as high-quality prints but can be created with different methods, including woodblock printing, screen printing, and lithography.
How To Reproduce Artwork
The quality of your prints will determine the value of your reproductions.
Fine art giclee prints will have more value to an art collector than a poster print.
To create a high-quality print, you will need to have a high-resolution digital image of your painting with a DPI greater than three hundred. DPI is dots per inch. The more dots per inch make it possible for the inkjet printer to add more detail in a smaller area, making it as close to the original.
Most digital photos are saved as 72 DPI, so you will need to invest in a digital camera that can produce high-resolution images.
To read more about the best cameras for artists visit, 4 Best Digital Cameras For Photographing Artwork.
Giclee printers have 12 inkjets making it possible to duplicate the original artwork. The ink is an archival ink with is said to last between 75 and 400 years before fading. The paper used for giclee is an acid-free archival paper that has a lifespan of over 100 years.
Supplement Your Income With Giclee Art Prints
Fine Art Giclee Printing has been around for over twenty years and helps artists reach a broader audience and generate extra income while waiting for their original artwork to sell.
Very few artists can make a living just selling their original paintings or artwork. With the help of technology, artists have many opportunities to supplement the income, and selling reproductions of their original work is at the top.
The internet has made it easy for artists to promote their art worldwide.
Videos have helped artists to produce tutorials for learning artists.
Giclee printing has made it possible for artists to sell high-quality prints of their original work.
For more ways to supplement your income visit 20 Ways, An Artist Can Supplement Their Income.
Limited Edition Giclee Prints
Some artists sell a limited edition of their originals to generate extra income from original artwork.
Not too long ago, artists would hire a printing company to print a specific number of prints of their original paintings or drawings. The artist would then offer them as a limited edition.
The prints would include the artist’s signature, date, and a number of the print which would look something like 45/100.
Many collectors collect limited editions because they know there will be a limited amount being circulated. In some cases, limited edition prints will increase in value after they have all been sold.
Offering a limited edition will usually increase your prints’ value, which will allow you to charge more. However, once all the prints have been sold, no more revenue can be generated from the original piece.
You will want to take that into consideration when you are deciding to offer a limited edition.
If you choose to sell limited editions, never offer more prints than initially reported. If you do so, you will tarnish your reputation and lose your audience.
Weigh out the pros and cons to determine if selling limited editions is best for you.
To read more about limited edition prints visit How To Sell Limited Edition Art Prints.
Open-Edition Giclee Prints
Open-edition prints mean that there is no limit to how many prints you can sell of a particular painting.
The value of open-edition prints is lower than limited edition prints because there is an unlimited supply.
Most open-edition prints are priced lower, however, an artist can generate an enormous profit over time if the prints are high in demand.
Pricing Your Giclee
As with your original paintings or drawings, your art’s price will be determined by how well known you are as an artist, how long you have been in business, and the costs of doing business.
To read more about pricing art visit, How To Price Art – Ultimate Guide For Selling Art.
Where To Get Giclee Prints Made
Most local printing services offer giclee printing, but you will want to ask them how many inkjets their printers have, what type of ink they use, and what kind of paper they use.
Online print-on-demand services are another option. POD services allow you to sell reproductions of your art with no upfront costs. When a print sells, the POD service will fulfill the order and ship it to the buyer.
Popular POD Sites:
Fine Art America claims to be the world’s largest marketplace and Print-On-Demand company and has been around since 2006.
When I started using Fine Art America, they focused on prints and greeting cards. Over the past year, they have introduced prints on apparel and home decor.
Fine Art America’s software makes it easy to upload an image and have it live for sale. Like most POD services, Fine Art America will take the order, process the order, and ship it to the buyer.
ArtPal has well over 70,000 selling original art, prints, and custom framing. It is easy to start selling on ArtPal, and better yet, it is free to get started. Unlike most POD sites, you can sell original artwork as well as using their free POD services.
Another positive is that you do not have to wait to get paid. ArtPal processes the payments and transfers the funds to your account.
Printful is a print-on-demand order fulfillment center that fulfills and ships high-quality prints on fine art paper, canvas, and other merchandise.
Printful launched in July 2013 and has become popular among artists and photographers. They have six locations with over 1,000 employees, making it possible to ship products worldwide.
For more print on demand services visit, Print On Demand Sites For Artists.
Final Thoughts On Fine Art Giclee Printing
Sell reproductions of your original artwork is excellent to generate passive income from art that has already been sold.
You have the choice of:
- Selling a limited edition or selling unlimited prints
- Using a POD service or printing your own prints
- Selling giclee prints on paper, canvas prints or giclee prints on metal or wood
If you are intersted in selling prints, visit How To Sell Art Prints Online.
Visit How To Price Art to learn how to develop a pricing strategy for your art business.
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If you truly want to treat your customers honestly and fairly, stop using terms like “giclee” , “plein aire”, and “grisaille”. These terms were created to try and make something more than it is. A giclee is an inkjet print and nothing more. If you want to call it a digital print or simply a print, both of those are true.
I’ve had artists try to tell me a giclee is better than a common ink jet print. That may have been true thirty years ago, but it is not true today when standard inkjet printers produce photograph quality images.
The mangling of the English language that people go through trying to use “plein aire” in a sentence or description would be comical if it weren’t so sad. It must be too much trouble to say, “on site” or “outdoors”, and “monchrome” or “monchromatic” instead of grisaille – terms easily understood by any other English speaking person.
Using foreign words to describe the perfectly normal is snobbery at best and dishonest at its worst. Treat people the way you want them to treat you and stop using these terms all together.
The only reason anyone needs a page like this to explain what these things are is because artists have decided to try and hide what they are actually doing rather than simply being honest. It is shameful.
Paul, thank for taking the time to share your thoughts and helping young artists understand the importance of marketing their artwork with clear and detailed descriptions.