Giclee Printing Advantages

By Author: Fabio Bragha
Total Articles: 1
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Giclee printing advantages:

Additional revenue for the artist beside the original when marketing giclees.
Setup is much cheaper for giclee than producing offset for litho printing (no plates need to be generated).
Quality is better than press both in resolution and color range.

Did you know giclee printing offers a much wider color gamut than traditional presses?
Much more variety of papers such as canvas and watercolor than press as giclee printing is not as fussy with substrates.
Different sizes can be printed on demand to accommodate the market.

While the latest Giclee printers use 6 or more colors, traditional printing is 4 colors: a lot of the pigments artists choose simply cannot be reproduced. The gamut (Range of colors reproduced) is higher with giclees. Manufacturers added extra pigments such as light cyan, light magenta, to increase chromatic rendition. Regarding pigments, make sure that your giclee provider uses pigments and not dyes for printing. This is an essential component to insure lasting reproductions. Every printer ...
... has different characteristics: A measure of DPI (dots per inch) is often overrated as to the only measure of quality. There are 300 DPI professional machines capable of rendering artwork of a much higher quality than a consumer level printer rated at 720 or 1,440 DPI. Ultimately, even with all the math and gamut graphs available, the true test is to observe a giclee next to the original. Use a lupe if one is available to discern any dot pattern.

Below is a dramatic representation of color gamuts. (Note: The image is just for representation and does not apply to real world processes: gamut tables do have varied and complex patterns).



Typically it is very hard for printers to reproduce all colors as saturation increases. As we go toward the edges saturation and brilliance increase and mechanical reproduction fails. Giclee printing can capture more colors. Even a 4 color Giclee printer has a better gamut than lithographs due to the brilliance of the pigments used. Our 7 inks printer goes beyond by adding a light black, light magenta and light cyan to the mix. Keep in mind that there is a limit to the gamut of giclees as well; through careful scanning and precise color correction we can produce prints with great depth.
About the Author Fabio Bragha is the owner of allpconline.com - a custom giclee printer in Tampa, FL specializing in high-end photographic reproduction using the finest materials available.