Images are generated from high resolution digital scans or a provided digital file and printed with archival, quality inks onto various archival media. Giclée prints 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.

The word Giclée is derived from the French verb "gicler" meaning "to squirt". The French "giclée" translates as "spray or spurt" of liquid. In the 1980's giclée prints were typically used as proofs for lithographic prints. With the advent of better printers, paper and ink, it was soon discovered that the giclée proofs were superior in quality to lithographic prints. Typical lithographic printing uses a series of various sized dots of one of four colors -- cyan, magenta, yellow and black, to create the illusion of various shades and hues. Giclée printing uses up to eight colors and sprays theinks onto the page. The giclée print "mixes" the spray of colors, eliminating the dots and producing better color accuracy, expanded true color gamut and longer print life.

The lithography limited edition print run normally requires a minimum of 500 prints and as such tends to saturate the market. These large run minimums result in reduced artist unit sell prices. Giclée limited edition fine art prints do not have minimum print runs. This "on-demand" or "as-needed" process enables the artist to test the market for one or several different works and then produce multiples of the image or images that garnered the most favorable response. Limited run capability reduces artists first run cost risks, and buoys the unit sell price. Giclée prints can be produced in a variety of sizes and on a variey of substrates giving the artist the ability to customize prints for a specific client.

Giclée prints are superior prints. Giclée prints can be found in Museums and Art Galleries and are recognized by Artists, Photographers and Curators as the best quality prints.

Professional, 8-color, Ultrachrome ink output from our Epson 9800. This technique produces incredibly detailed prints for both the fine art and photographic markets. The Giclée method "sprays" the Epson Ultrachrome inks on the medium, eliminating the dots thus producting better color accuracy, and expanded true color gamut and longer print life (often in excess of 100 years under certain conditions; Based on testing conducted by Welhelm Imaging Research).

Each Giclée print comes with a Certificate of Authenticity signed by both the artist and an Arc Reprographics representative. Arc requires final approval from the artist alone and guarantees 100% satisfaction.

A representative swatch of the image is printed on the Epson 9800 printer on the substrate requested by the artist. A color comparison of the printed swatch is done with the original art work and inconsistencies are addressed through the color correction process. This process involves subtle color corrections to all or portions of the image. The color correction process continues until the best possible balance between the original art work and the swatch is reached.

Giclée prints are produced on very high quality substrates. These substrates -- bonds, photo base, fine art, water color paper and canvas -- are specially treated and are similar to what is used by the artist for the original work. The combination of advanced technology ink-jet printers, superior inks and conditioned high quality substrates equates to superior -- museum quality, archival prints with a typical fade resistant longevity often in excess of 100 years.

SIHL ® Artist Canvas
Maranello Satin Photo Paper
Somerset ® Velvet
Aquarella Matte Artist Paper
Singleweight Matte Paper
Doubleweight Matte Paper