What Is Giclée Printing? A Plain-English Guide
Giclée (pronounced zhee-clay) is the gold standard for printing art and photography. Here's what it actually means.
How giclée printing works
Giclée is high-resolution inkjet printing using pigment inks rather than dye, sprayed in fine droplets onto fine-art paper. Pigment particles are light-stable, so colours stay accurate and resist fading far longer than a standard photo-lab or office print.
Giclée vs a standard print
A high-street or home print usually uses dye inks on thin paper — fine for a snapshot, but it can fade within a few years. A giclée print uses pigment inks on heavyweight archival paper, rated to last decades, with richer colour depth and a tactile, gallery feel.
Why artists and galleries use it
Giclée lets artists reproduce and sell their work at archival quality without an expensive print run, and lets photographers show work the way they intend. It's the standard collectors expect for limited and open editions.
What you need to print giclée
A high-resolution file (around 300 DPI at print size), pigment inks and archival fine-art paper. Read more on fine art paper and choosing the best paper, or learn how to make prints of your art.
Print your work as giclée
Every Print Frame Co print is a giclée print — archival fine-art paper, pigment inks, made to order at the size you choose.