A giclee art print quality checklist
Like a lot of art-related subjects, giclee art print quality can vary greatly from one supplier to another. In fact, there is not a universal definition of just what a giclee print is.
Some say a giclee print is “a high quality artwork reproduction” with no mention of the process by which that reproduction is accomplished.
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Others define a giclee reproduction as one generated from an inkjet printer without defining the resolution, ink or substrate quality.
Then there are those who define giclee as the process they use and then go on to describe their equipment (an Epson printer with eight color cartridges printing at 2800 x 1400 dots per inch) as an example.
So here is a checklist of features and specifications that the giclee processor needs to use to establish their criteria for quality in a giclee art print. These are guidelines only and may not even be known to the print seller, so it is difficult to use this check list in evaluating a giclee you might want to purchase. The major criteria, however is always: do you like it? Does it “move” you and does it fit within your budget?
Here’s the checklist:
How is the art transferred into a computer file?
- If photographed, at what resolution? How was it lit? Was a digital camera used?
- If scanned, what was the resolution of the scanner? Was it a drum scanner for a photograph or a flatbed for original art?
How is the image manipulated within the computer?
- How true is the software and its settings when processing the art file?
- How much color correction needs to be done, and how qualified are those who do it?
What are the specifications of printer?
- How many color cartridges are present?
- What resolution can the printer achieve?
What are the specifications of the printing inks?
- Are they compatible with the printer?, i.e., produced by the printer manufacturer.
- Are they archival, pigmented inks?
What types and specifications of substrate are used?
- If paper, is it bright, acid-free and archival?
- What is the paper’s finish – glossy, matte or somewhere in between?
- If canvas, is it archival?
- What is the composition of the canvas fibre?
What type, if any, coatings are used?
- Is the coating a UV protectorate?
- Is it matte or glossy?
- Is it water resistant?
So those are questions you might not get answers to, but are the factors, aside from the artwork itself, that contribute to the quality of a giclee fine art print.
If purchased from a reputable gallery or on-line source like art.com, you can’t go too far wrong. They may not know all the answers but they do not deal in “junk”.
