Giclee Information

I discussed the giclee printers in another section. Focus is on the scanning and finishing equipment for giclee printing.

Scanning and digital capture equipment

Garbage in, garbage out. If you start with a bad scan there is no printer that will make a decent giclee. If the goal is to make prints of large art work, a high end digital camera is essential. There are two types available: progressive scan backs and single shot CCD cameras. Progressive scan back are generally mounted on the back of a medium or large format camera. The back is like a scanner: it uses a CCD array that progressively captures the image. It can take several seconds to minutes to complete a scan. These backs can only be used for still shots, not moving subjects. The advantage of these backs is lower costs and as good of a quality as single shot.

The second more expensive option is pro level medium format CCD cameras. Very expensive and starting at around 20K, this equipment can produce images just as fast as a regular digital camera but with a much higher resolution and color range.

There are large format scanners designed for art reproduction. Contrary to what most people believe, these machines are not a scanner in the traditional sense but a camera mounted on an horizontal stand with fixed lights.

Lamination for giclee

While I do not advise to coat watercolor prints, I strongly recommend coating canvas. Why not watercolor? Because watercolor needs to be under glass to be protected from moisture anyway and any type of coating would cover and alter the beautiful texture.

Canvas on the other hand has to be protected for many reasons. First, some canvas is not water resistant and it should be sealed. Sealing increases scuff resistance. Keep in mind that most canvas will be displayed without glass, hence the need for protection. Also, UV and environmental attacks are greatly reduced with lamination.

Lamination for giclee prints can be accomplished in different ways:

Water based liquid coating: usually acrylic and vinyl based, they provide good overall protection. Low or no fumes. These compounds can be applied either by brush, roller, spray gun or liquid laminator.

Water based liquid coating: same modality of application as the water based plus the availability of aerosol spray cans. As you can imagine, pretty noxious fumes during drying.

Low pressure/heat vacuum presses: highest scuff resistance compared to other coatings. While older materials were not recommended for archival giclee prints, new laminating films have come a long way. Because of the vacuum low heat combination, the film adheres perfectly to canvas texture.