What is a Giclée print?

[Mike Lopez]

Jeez, I haven't visited this here APUG site in awhile, and...oh, wait. Never mind.

[Ken Grooms]

Thanks Paulr et al. What printer lab do you guys use for your best shots...or are all prints are basically equal? I have a nice Canon printer, but I was just wondering if there was some pro printer out there that was really special for if and when I get a really nice shot.

[Paul Coppin]

Well, ok, I'll wade in too... I see that the original question got answered, and the discussion has moved, as it usually does, to the MEANING of it all . I have used the term as an adverb: printed "Giclee", as a means to distinguish the production method. There's a gross mechanical connotation to "ink-jet" that to me is offensive in the context of the precise technology that is going on at the print head. Sort of like "spray-painted", but smaller. Technically correct, but philosophically crude.
I agree that "ultrachrome print" is a fine descriptor of inkjet printing using Epson K series inks. Its directly analogous to Cibachrome, in that it is a colour print by a specific, somewhat proprietary process. The nomenclature is valid - there are technical limitations to inkjet, and specifically K ink pigments (and other "squirtable" products), which in part define the art, just as there is with Cibachrome or any other proprietary printing method.

When I first saw "silver gelatin", I was taken aback - for the longest time didn't make the connection between it and a good ol' B&W print. I still think its hugely preposterous, truly dressing a pig, much more so that referring to inkjets as "giclees". As the methods of producing a print increase, I think its valid to identify it by type. Artists do it with media, no reason why photographers shouldn't.

The inkjet method has evolved to a level of respectibility, that its not so important, by that I mean expressing a print as an "inkjet" really doesn't tell you much. That's why I favour terms like "ultrachrome". Telling me a print is an inkjet tells me nothing about its physical character, other than it not a wet process photoprint. Calling a print an "Ultrachrome" tells me that it is an inkjet print made using Epson K series pigments, which tells me much more about its physical properties, just as Cibachrome does, or dye-sub.

[roteague]

When I first saw "silver gelatin", I was taken aback - for the longest time didn't make the connection between it and a good ol' B&W print.

I think it came about as a means of distinguishing between a traditionally print and one done on an ink jet.

As a subject, this is one that there will never be consensus on. Some photographers find applying the term "fine art" to an ink jet print to be objectionable; even more so when a term like "Giclée" is used to "elevate" its status. Some photographers see no problems with using an ink jet print, and see it as a viable alternative to traditional darkroom printing.

[tim atherton]

--Quote (Originally by Paul Coppin)---
When I first saw "silver gelatin", I was taken aback - for the longest time didn't make the connection between it and a good ol' B&W print.
---End Quote---
I think it came about as a means of distinguishing between a traditionally print and one done on an ink jet.

Oh not at all - it far predates that by a long way- probably 40+ years ago or so . It was, among other things, a part of the process of fancifying photography once it had started moving into museums . A straight forward black and white photo became a "silver gelatin print" (as later a straight forward colour lab print became a "Chromogenic Print" or even better a "Chromogenic Dye Coupler Print")

Some photographers find applying the term "fine art" to an ink jet print to be objectionable; even more so when a term like "Giclée" is used "elevating" its status. Some photographers see no problems with using an ink jet print, and see it as a viable alternative to traditional darkroom printing.

in part, the term "silver gelatin print" was exactly this - part of the process of elevating the status of an ordinary black and white photo by using a fancy name so it was good enough to sit on a museum wall.

Some photographers find applying the term "fine art" to an ink jet print to be objectionable

On that note, the Metropolitan Museum of Art has been collecting inkjet/iris prints since 1984 - they just refer to them as "art" or "photographs" (aside from "fine art" being a term the some are advising photographers not to use outside of certain markets)

[roteague]

On that note, the Metropolitan Museum of Art has been collecting inkjet/iris prints since 1984 - they just refer to them as "art" or "photographs" (aside from "fine art" being a term the some are advising photographers not to use outside of certain markets)

While the MET is an influential gallery, it is still only one of many. The Etherton Gallery for example, lists an Ansel Adams print as thus: Materials: gelatin silver print. Galleries are as individualistic as photographers.

[Jorge Gasteazoro]

While ink jet print might be considered art, museums got caught with their pants down an in a quandry about what to name ink jet prints. Ink jet prints have more in common with posters than they do with traditional photographs, e.i the laying down of ink on paper.

[Maris Rusis]

Using the French form giclee teds to add "class" to the print just as having a menu in French adds class to a restaurant's line of food.

For those who are not francophiles a good Yiddish style alternative to giclee is schputz; again meaning that which is squirted or spurted. Giclee-print or Schputz-print are both delightfully evocative alternatives for an article that remains tediously drab if referred to only as an inkjet print.

[Jim Noel]

Charles has absolutely the best answer!

[sanking]

Using the French form giclee teds to add "class" to the print just as having a menu in French adds class to a restaurant's line of food.

For those who are not francophiles a good Yiddish style alternative to giclee is schputz; again meaning that which is squirted or spurted. Giclee-print or Schputz-print are both delightfully evocative alternatives for an article that remains tediously drab if referred to only as an inkjet print.

If Giclee does it for you, great. I consider myself a francophile and find the term a ridiculous affectation. The only thing more ridicuous would an attempt to distinuish between "giclee" and "tru giclee".

The following from a previous message hits the nail right on the head as far as I am concerned. "If you have a problem with the customer knowing that your image is an inkjet print then you need to ask yourself what you are about. And as long as photographers continue to dress up their work in meaningless terms their work will continue to be held in suspicion."


Sandy King