Our prints are archival quality Giclée prints, printed on acid free heavy art paper with a large format ink jet printer, similar, except for size, to the one most people have sitting on their desk. When digital photos are printed at a high resolution, the ink jet printer produces the most faithful reproduction possible. Most digital photos found on the internet are reproduced at 72 dpi. The human eye cannot easily discern the difference between 72 dots per inch (dpi) and higher resolutions. It is almost impossible to differentiate between the original and the print when printed at 300 dpi or higher. Our Giclée prints are printed at 300 dpi.

Giclée prints can be made on different surfaces, like watercolor paper or canvas. An oil painting can be reproduced in great detail except for textures like those produced by palette knife or brush strokes. Giclée prints, unlike lithographs, are printed one at a time. Lithography utilizes a four color separation, Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black, (CMYK) which means the paper passes through the printing press four times. Each of the four images is transferred to a metal plate to which the ink adheres to make the image on paper. With the Giclée process the image is transferred directly to the paper. There is much less chance of error in the ink jet printing process. The paper passes through the printer just once, one at a time, producing a copy faithful to the original at high resolution. Lithographs can be printed by the thousands just for the cost of the paper, after set up charges. Not too exclusive.

Giclée is a French word for squirt or jet, which refers to the ink jet printing process for computers. Giclée prints can be made on a variety of paper types and even on canvas.

The art world likes to use French names for things because it sounds more arty. Another example that comes to mind is plein air painting, which refers to painting outdoors rather than in the studio. Personally I like the studio. It’s very difficult to paint wild animals, such as a charging elephant, that simply won’t stand still.