What is Giclée?

Giclée (gee-clay) is an advanced printmaking process for creating high quality fine art reproductions. The attainable quality that Giclée printmaking affords makes the reproduction virtually indistinguishable from the original artwork. The result is wide acceptance of high quality Giclées by galleries, museums, and private collectors.

How does a Giclée differ from a traditional print?
Giclée printmaking derives its quality from its seemingly “dotless” imaging technology which contrasts with traditional fine art prints which typically relies on printing screen pattern dots to reproduce full-range color. Because traditional offset printing dot patterns are detectable to the unaided eye, it is less desirable than Giclée fine art prints for fine art reproduction. Traditional offset prints are typically restricted to papers that widely vary from what the original artwork was created on – especially when reproducing oil on canvas. The Giclée process enables reproduction on virtually the same media as the original artwork whether it is on canvas, textured watercolor paper, or specialty fine art papers. The result is a reproduction that is virtually indistinguishable from the original artwork.

I have heard that reproductions fade over time, what about Giclée?
Archival-grade Giclée fine art reproductions are recognized as "the next best thing” to owning the original artwork and can be found in the world's finest museums and art galleries. Based on independent research and testing, there are different ratings for display life for each type of process and materials being used in the printmaking process. Wilhelm Imaging Research archival ratings have been provided to the public about fade-free display-life for many processes and materials used in Giclee printmaking today.  

The link above gives a complete history of what is now known as Giclee printing in extensive detail in a 9 page PDF document.  It makes for a very interesting read as to the history of this printing process which started in the late 1980's and has been refined over the years to what it is today. 

In short, the fade factor has been greatly reduced, in fact, almost eliminated, and the giclee inkjet technology is routinely being used to reproduce fine art and photographs that have sold for thousands of dollars.  This has pushed the demand for a high level of print permanence, which by the year 2006, was achieved as a state-of-the-art technology.