Inkjet canvas for giclee

What is a giclee?

A giclee is a high fidelity print made on fine art canvas or watercolor paper. The term (noun) "giclee" was coined in California over a decade ago and derives from the French verb "gicler", which loosely means to squirt. The nozzles of the inkjet do squirt ink on the substrate, creating deep, exquisite prints. The first giclees were made with the Iris printer (ie the 3047 model).

Is a giclee just an inkjet print?

A giclee is made with a professional quality inkjet. Although there are different technologies out there, only a few manufacturers produce machines capable of true giclee printing. A giclee must be made with archival inks and papers. This generally means pigmented inks and papers that are acid and optical brightener free. The nozzles need to be high grade and be able to reproduce with great color fidelity and detail. Resolution is not an absolute indication of printing quality. There are some cheap desktop printers costing less than $200 with very high resolution. They do not approach in any way the quality of a lower resolution professional giclee printer. It takes time to prepare and print a great giclee. A professional printing service will take the time to insure the best possible results can be achieved.

There are shops that will blindly print any file they receive on canvas or any art paper and call it a giclee. In my opinion the term not only defines the hardware and materials being used, but the skills involved in making all the variables come together.