Giclée and Offset Printing Definitions

• Giclée

  The Definition : Giclée (zhee-klay) - The French word "giclée" is a feminine noun that means a spray or a spurt of liquid. The word may have been derived from the French verb "gicler" meaning "to squirt".
  
  The Term : The term "giclée print" connotes an elevation in printmaking technology. Images are high resolution digital scans printed with archival quality inks onto various substrates including canvas, fine art, and photo-base paper. The giclée printing process provides better color accuracy than other means of reproduction. As for quality, the giclée print now rivals many traditional silver-halide and gelatin printing processes and is commonly found in museums, art galleries, and photographic galleries. Numerous examples of giclée prints can be found in New York City at the Metropolitan Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, and the trendy Chelsea Galleries.
  
  The Advantages : Giclée prints (sometimes mistakenly referred to as an Iris print which is a 4-color ink-jet printer line pioneered in the late 1970s by Iris Graphics) are advantageous to artists who do not find it feasible to mass produce their work, but want to reproduce their art as needed, or on-demand. Once an image is digitally archived, additional reproductions can be made with minimal effort and reasonable cost - the prohibitive up-front cost of mass production for an edition is eliminated. Another tremendous advantage of giclée printing is that digital images can be reproduced to almost any size and onto various media, giving the artist the ability to customize prints for a specific client. These digital images will not deteriorate in quality such as negatives and film because the information is archived digitally.
  
  The Process : Giclée prints are created typically using high-end 8-color to 12-color ink-jet printers. Among the manufacturers of these printers are vanguards such as Epson, MacDermid Colorspan, & Hewlett-Packard. These modern technology printers are capable of producing incredibly detailed prints for both the fine art and photographic markets.
  

• Offset Printing

  The term offset is often used interchangeably with lithography. In fact, lithography is the printing process based on the theory that oil and water don't mix and often uses the offset process for printing an image. Offset is the process whereby a printing plate first transfers its inked image areas onto a rubber blanket mounted on a cylinder in the printing press and then the rubber blanket transfers (or offsets) the inked image onto the paper as it passes through the press. Currently the most common commercial printing method.