What Is A Giclee Print

The objective of any business is to generate an income.

Successful artists know the importance of having different revenue streams when original artwork sales are flat.

Offering giclee reproduction prints over their original artwork is a popular way for artists to generate more money from sold original art.

To read more about selling prints, visit How To Sell Art Prints Online.

Why are more artists offering fine art prints and giclee prints of their artwork?

Artists have realized that it is difficult to only rely on original art sales.

Once the original piece has been sold, that is it. No more money can be generated from that piece.

But with prints, you can continue to earn money from an original piece that has been sold.

Even if the original has not been sold, you can earn extra money selling prints by reaching an audience that loves your artistic style but can not afford to purchase an original.

With increased online art sales every year, you might consider including prints in your art marketing plan.  

Popular Types Of Prints Artists Sell

Screenprints, lithographs, and giclee prints are the most popular types of prints most artists sell online and at local craft fairs.

Screenprints and lithographs are traditional printmaking techniques by skilled people, making printing costs more expensive to reproduce.

Giclee prints can also be used to reproduce art and are becoming more popular for artists because they are a more cost-efficient way for artists to reproduce their original artwork.

What Is Giclee Printing

Giclée is 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 a modified Iris printer in a process invented in the late 1980s. (Source: Wikipedia)

Giclee (pronounced “zhee-clays”) prints art prints made from a 12-color inkjet printer with pigment-based archival inks and acid-free paper.

The 12-color inkjet printer can perfectly match the color of the original artwork, which will produce a high-quality print.

The acid-free paper and pigment-based archival inks are used so the prints will not fade or yellow over time.

Giclee prints are printed from digital files, making it possible for any artist to offer high-quality fine-art prints.

How Does Giclee Printing Work

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It is important to understand what is involved in this process before considering the advantages and disadvantages of printing this way.

Color pictures are often combined with inks, which can be combined with various printers to produce different designs.

Once this combination is used, the print will be made using an offset or spot printer with a wider color gamut than conventional presses.

When using Giclee printing, the images are created in layers on the same sheet of paper as the conventional printers use.

The process starts with the artist working on a color drawing or photograph to get the desired result.

The image is placed on the paper with the paper placed into the press where the printable surface is shaped.

The printable surface may be a single, double, or triple pattern.

A color swatch is then drawn onto the design, which comprises layers of inks combined.

Each color of ink corresponds to one part of the picture, with darker inks creating areas outlined in grey or black and lighter inks producing brighter areas outlined in white.

Giclee printing can also be used to print through a screen.

This type of printing is done by simply putting the design into the printing head through a plate.

The designs printed on a screen are only half the process because the image needs to be transferred onto a thin sheet of paper with a UV jet gun machine. A sheet of paper is folded and held down until it is heated to the point where it creates a printable surface.

The ink is then transferred onto the paper by a UV inkjet printing machine. The graphic is then split apart with another UV inkjet gun, and the parts are combined to form the final design.

Who Sells Giclee Prints

Giclee printing is most commonly used by artists and commercial studios that want to create huge posters.

The artwork can be large and complex.

Although this is a large investment, the images can still be made affordable if they are printed on larger canvases. The image can then be hung on a wall. When high-end businesses and artists want to produce commercial prints, they may want to consider this printing method.

Related Post – Best Printing Companies That Print On Canvas

Why Giclee Printing

There are several advantages to Giclee printing.

For instance, it is one of the few printing methods that can be used to print many images without needing large printing machines that are extremely costly.

Since the images are directly pressed onto paper, they must be strong enough to resist water.

The giclee printing process also allows for very accurate and detailed prints.

The printable surfaces can be shaped, much like a physical painting, which allows the images to have a greater degree of detail.

This is not possible with other types of printing because different types of paper have different levels of resilience.

For large prints, prints can be taken to different sizes without using any more paper.

This reduces wastage and costs as the large prints will not require making more copies.

The traditional method of making a large print was taking the same sized image, slicing it into smaller pieces, and then printing them on separate sheets of paper.

The lack of the need for traditional techniques means that larger prints can be produced more economically and easily.

Multiple colors are also a plus as it is not required for all images.

As well as helping to save money, the other main advantages of Giclee printing include being environmentally friendly and a great form of advertising that you can afford.

Preparing Your Artwork For Giclee Prints

Digital cameras and scanners will create digital files that can be used for giclee prints.

When creating your digital file, the image must be at the required size for printing.

For the best results, your image needs to be 300 dpi.

To see if your image is at 300 dpi, open your image in Photoshop.

Click on the image, then click image size.

The resolution will show you the dpi for the image.

Keep in mind that your prints will only be as good as the quality of the digital image.

For more information about digital cameras and scanners visit:

4 Best Digital Cameras For Photographing Artwork

Best Scanner For Graphite Artists

For more information about photographing art visit:

7 Tips For Photographing Artwork

Best Places To Purchase Giclee Prints

There are three options you have when it comes to selling giclee prints of your original artwork.

• Purchase Giclee Prints from a professional printing service
• Selling giclee prints from POD (print on demand services)
• Purchase a giclee printer.

Professional Printing Service

You probably have professional local fine art giclee printing services in your area.

There are pros and cons to purchasing giclee prints from local art printing services.

The pro is that you will be able to work with someone in person. You will have the opportunity to view the prints to make sure they accurately represent your original artwork before you have multiple prints.

The con is that you will probably be spending more per print than most online giclee printing services.

Do a Google search for local printing services in your area.

Popular Fine Art Printing Services In Western Mass.

• Giclee of New England, Inc
• Artopia Giclee
• Lori’s Art and Printing
• Evolv Fine Art Printing

Print On Demand

There are more print-on-demand services than ever before because art sale continues to climb every year.

Print on demand services allows you to sell your original artwork prints without any upfront costs.

You simply upload a digital file of your artwork to the site. When a customer purchases a giclee print, the POD service will collect the money, print the giclee prints or canvas prints, and ship the product to the buyer. You will receive royalties for each transaction.

For more information about POD services visit:

• POD Websites How To Increase Art Sales
• Print On Demand Sites For Artists – What You Should Know
• 7 Best Watercolor Printing Services

Popular Print On Demand Services

• Fineworks
• Printful
• Giclee Today
• Fine Art Prints On Demand
• Fine Art America

Purchasing A Giclee Printer

The last option is to purchase a giclee printer and print fine art prints at home.

Purchasing a high-quality giclee print is a large investment. You will have to decide if it is a profitable investment for your art business.

ProImagingSupplies.com has a large variety of giclee printers and will be a great place to see what each model offers.

You should know exactly how many prints you will have to sell to pay off the giclee printer. You will also want to know how much each print will cost and how long it will take to generate the required amount before turning over a profit.

Selling Giclee Prints

Having an innovative way of advertising is essential, especially when the product is expensive to produce.

You need to ensure that you choose Giclee printing if you are considering printing large designs for your business or company.

Giclee printing is the most popular form of printing and is one of the highest tech printing methods.

This kind of printing is done on a machine and not by hand, but other things differentiate it from other types of printing.

Professional artists use different selling strategies for selling giclee reproductions of their original art, including limited edition prints, unlimited edition prints, and giclee prints on canvas.

Limited edition is the number of giclee prints or fine art prints available for a specific reproduction of an original drawing or painting.

The artist determines the number of prints, and the print number is usually written on the bottom left of the print.

An artist can charge more for limited edition prints because they will ever never be reproduced again.

Professional artists use different selling strategies for selling giclee reproductions of their original art, including limited edition prints, unlimited edition prints, and giclee prints on canvas.

Open edition giclee prints allow an artist to reproduce as many prints as desired.

Artists usually charge less for unlimited prints but can earn revenue for years from the original artwork.

Giclee prints on canvas have become more popular thanks to all of the print-on-demand sites opened.

Many people can not afford to invest in an original painting but would love to display the artwork on their walls.

Giclee prints on canvas allow people to display beautiful artwork in their homes for a fraction of the original cost.

To read more about selling prints visit, How To Sell Art Prints Online.

Pricing Giclee Prints

Pricing your artwork will be determined by several factors, including the quality of the artwork, if the artwork is in demand, market value, career level, and how well-known the artist is.

For more information about pricing your prints, visit, How To Price Art Prints.

Conclusion:

Offering reproductions of your original artwork is a great way to increase your income.

Decide what the best solution for your art business goals is.

Visit Best Printers For Art Prints if you are interested in printing high-quality prints at how but can not afford a giclee printer at this time.

Selling Art Prints

Here are some articles about selling art prints online.

• How To Price Art Prints
• How To Sell Your Art Prints Online
• How To Sell Art Prints On Etsy With Printful
• How To Sell Art Prints Online And Make Money
• How To Print On Acrylics