Information about Giclee Prints
sold at the Norman Rockwell Museum
The Quality: The quality of the giclee print rivals traditional silver-halide and gelatin printing processes and is commonly found in museums, art galleries, and photographic galleries.
How are Giclee art prints made? In giclee printing, no screen or other mechanical devices are used and therefore there is no visible dot screen pattern. Notice in the above illustration that the non-Giclee print (left) has dot-like artifacts of other printing processes and the Giclee print (right) has no such artifacts. The image has all the tonalities and hues of the original painting. Giclee (pronounced Gee'clay) is a French term meaning to spray or squirt, which is how an inkjet printer works. However, it is not the same as a standard desktop inkjet printer, and is much larger. Giclee prints are a little over a metre wide and are often affectionately referred to as a "knitting machine" as they look very similar.