The word Giclée is French, meaning 'to spray'.

The art of fine art printing has become even more precise with the advent of the revolutionary Giclée (pronounced ghee-clay) printing process. In the Giclée process, a fine stream of ink (more than four million droplets per second) is sprayed onto archival art paper or canvas. Each piece of paper or canvas is carefully hand mounted onto a drum which rotates during printing. Exact calculation of hue, value and density direct the ink from four nozzles. This with the combination of 512 tonal values per nozzle results in one hundred thirty million highly saturated colors made with non-toxic water-based ink.

Since no screens are used in Giclée printing, the prints have a higher resolution than lithographs and the dynamic color range is greater than serigraphy. The individual drops of dye are truly microscopic. Because of this feature, prints have an apparent resolution of about 1800 dpi. The results are so good that even experts have difficulty distinguishing between the print and the original artwork.

Iris ® inks used on high-quality watercolor paper, have proven to be totally permanent in normal viewing circumstances for more than 30 years. This makes it very similar in performance to the Ifochrome (formerly Cibachrome) photographic process, which is undeniably a legitimate competitor, but which does not have the feel of a work of art on art paper.

Giclée fine art prints are so outstanding that art dealers, galleries and museums accept them without hesitation. They are so good that artists all round the world are now exploring this rich and beautiful new medium. Some even using Giclée prints as their preferred base for artist retouched limited edition prints.