Giclee Information

As I mentioned in the home page, giclee is a term coined to describe inkjet printing at its highest level. The word giclee itself was chosen by pioneers in the field. Its birth is attributed to Jack Duganne, a printmaker who became an early adopter of the Iris inkjet technology specifically tuned to fine art.

The beginnings

Scitex, an Israeli company, created a series of printers that could create amazingly detailed and faithful reproductions. Scitex invested a lot in the research and development of the machines (such as the Iris 3047, the Realist and other models) to cater to the printing industry. The aim was not the fine art market but the pre-press industry. Offset printers were the primary beneficiaries, namely for proofing before creating plates to go to press. Jack Duganne and Nash Editions in particular saw the potential to exploit this technology by printing of watercolor paper. Although these prints looked stunning, the initial materials were not stable. Inks were only available as dyes, with a short life span. Although these printers created good results, their technology is now considered obsolete.

The newcomers

It did not take too long for larger companies to realize how important the potential market for high quality inkjet printing was going to be. Epson, a division of Seiko Corporation, created its piezo head technology and quickly started coming out with printers that were easier to run and less prone to clogging compared to Iris. The results, at least for the best part of the 90s, were just a chase to reach the quality of the original Scitex offerings.

Today

When 2000 (circa) came, both Epson, Canon and HP are out with fantastic printers, greatly surpassing the resolution, color gamut and archival properties of the original Iris. These machines almost run by themselves as far as maintenance is concerned. Depending on the model, a push of a button will verify nozzle operation, alignment and even profile a paper. A long way from the early days, where everything had to be done by hand!