What is a Giclee print?

The term "giclee" comes from the French word "gicleur" meaning "to squirt ink". The process is digital printmaking with a printer that uses minute droplets of archival ink to create prints that cannot be duplicated by other printing techniques. Specifically, a fine art giclee print is created using numerous sophisticated ,state of the art digital tools to create unique fine art images that are archival quality onto canvas and or genuine artist watercolor paper or other fine art papers. The advantages of the giclee over other printing techniques are clear. Stunning definition and a vast range of up to 16 million colors with superb color saturation with continuous tone and outstanding museum grade archival performance. The quality of these prints which capture both the color and intensity of the originals is the reason giclee prints have become so popular with art collectors.

What is a Lithograph?

A lithograph is created by drawing an image onto a stone or metal plate using a grease crayon or a greasy ink called tusche. Most modern day lithographs are from the popular photomechanical method. A photomechanical or process print is created from a matrix upon which the image has been photographically transferred from an original source. There is no direct hand work involved in creating the matrix and thus a photomechanical print is considered to be a reproduction rather than an original print. Photomechanical methods were developed in the late nineteenth century . A common characteristic of many photomechanical prints is their use of half tone screens which produce an image through the use of small dots.