What Is A Giclee?

A giclee (zhee-CLAY) is an individually produced, high-resolution, high-fidelity reproduction done on a special large format printer. Giclees are produced from digital scans of existing artwork. Also, since many artists now produce only digital art, there is not an "original" that can be hung on a wall. Giclees solve that problem, while creating a whole new vibrant medium for art.

Giclees can be printed on any number of media, from canvas to watercolor paper to transparent acetates. Giclees are superior to traditional lithography in several ways. The colors are brighter, last longer, and are so high-resolution that they are virtually continuous tone, rather than tiny dots. The range, or "gamut" of color for giclees is far beyond that of lithography.

Lithography uses tiny dots of four colors--cyan, magenta, yellow and black--to fool the eye into seeing various hues and shades. Colors are "created" by printing different size dots of these four colors.

Giclees use inkjet technology, but far more sophisticated than your desktop printer. The process employs six colors--light cyan, cyan, light magenta, magenta, yellow and black--of lightfast inks and finer, more numerous, and replaceable printheads resulting in a wider color gamut, and the ability to use various media to print on. The ink is sprayed onto the page, actually mixing the inks on the page to create true colors.

They are priced midway between original art and regular limited edition lithographs. Limited edition lithograph prints are usually produced in editions of 500-1000 or more, but giclees rarely exceed 50-100 reproductions.

Giclees were originally developed as a proofing system for lithograph printing presses, but it became apparent that the presses were having a hard time matching the quality and color of the giclee proofs. They evolved into the new darlings of the art world. They are coveted by collectors, and desired by galleries because they don't have to be produced in huge quantities with a large layout of capital and storage.

In addition, Giclees are produced directly from a digital file, saving generations of detail-robbing negatives and printing plates, as with traditional printing.

How To Price a Giclee

Here are three guidelines to consider when pricing your giclees.

Price by size. This goes without saying -- a small giclee should be less expensive than a large giclee. There are some exceptions but most of the time start your prices with the smallest and work up to the largest.

Price by Artist. Some artists are world famous, some are just famous in their home country, some are just famous in their geographic region, and some are just famous in their home town. What does being well known as artists have to do with giclee prices? Where the artist is in his/her career path is a factor in pricing. As in all issues of marketing, those that have spent the dollars and are branded, of course, are going to bring higher prices for their art. You alone can decide what your level of success is and price your giclees accordingly. A word of caution here, you must be realistic and brutally honest. The term "starving artist" was coined for a good reason.

The market will often decide. If your art does not sell at the price you want, you often have to adjust occasionally to find the price niche that the client is comfortable paying for your art. This is true on the internet and also the gallery level.

Summary. As a gallery owner, I have found this issue to be both difficult and personal to the artist. Down through the years, we gallery owners have found it is best to talk frankly to the artist about this because it will affect the galleries' income as well as the artist’s. Both must make money. There are times the prices are just too high for a particular artist and as a result the art will not sell. There are also times the prices are too low, but this is the exception -- not the rule. We often try too hard to separate art from other products for sale where price matters. Art is different, but the buyers often don’t look at it the same way. It is a product for their home or office just like other items they need. There are a select few real art collectors in this country and abroad that look at it differently, and buy based on collect-ability and investment. This category is beginning to grow but will never encompass the whole art buying market, as a result the majority of buyers will be just buying a commodity.

One way to compromise is to treat your original art differently than your giclees. In the end, only you can decide -- but please don’t just say "this is it -- my prices are my prices and I don’t care if they sell".