Giclée Fine Art Printing

We specialise in providing a fine art giclée printing service to artists and art publishers throughout the UK. Using the latest imaging equipment and profiling technology, we print with archival quality pigmented inks onto various media including canvas, fine art and photo-base papers. The inks are UV stable and offer a lifespan of 100+ years.

Using the very finest Hahnemühle digital fine art paper or canvas, original artwork can be reproduced as a limited edition Giclée print. The Hahnemühle paper mill has been producing quality mould-made artists papers for over 425 years.

All Hahnemühle papers are produced in accordance with ISO9706 specifications for archive grade paper. The papers are 100% acid free with a neutral pH.

Why Make Giclée Fine Art Prints?

As any artist who sells their own work knows, once your pride and joy is gone, that's it. Now imagine if you could reproduce some of your more important pieces on demand and then sell them as very high quality art prints, often on the same media the original was produced on. Suddenly you have opened up endless possibilities for increasing the revenue from your work. Giclée fine art prints made from your original artwork, as an open or limited edition print, is another way to market your work.

One of the biggest obstacles for many artists is how to price their work, too high and it may never sell, too low and you lose valuable income. In an attempt to make their work more affordable, whilst still maintaining very high levels of quality, many self publishing artists and photographers now make use of giclee printing as a way to produce their art prints. They have found that it allows them to reach a greater section of their potential market, people who would otherwise never invest in expensive original art works.

Many artists have already established a way to sell their Giclée prints by various means, including art exhibitions, local art galleries, markets or street stalls. In an attempt to increase their exposure and sell more work, some artists have published their work on web galleries like Artspan home to 2,700 artist, artisan and art photographers; some artists even set up their own web sites to help market their work. In truth there is no one way that will work for everyone, you have to spread your marketing efforts as wide as possible to achieve a result and this can be very hard work. Check our article on Selling and Marketing Your Giclée Prints, it will help you assess the steps you need to take to successfully sell your work.

Redcliffe operates its own web based e-Gallery for the benefit of artists and photographers who use Redcliffe's Giclée print service. The e-Gallery is a free service that allows artists and photographers to showcase their work and offers a secure web ordering system, this means potential buyers can view your work and place an order on line for your printed artwork. Completed print orders are shipped by UPS direct to the buyer anywhere in the world.

How are Giclée Prints made?

Traditionally, artists have used offset lithography and screen-printing to reproduce runs of prints, both these photomechanical methods of reproduction use plates or screens.

Giclée Printing refers to a printmaking method that involves using a digitised image outputted from a computer to a large format inkjet printer. The term "giclée" is derived from the French for "spray" and was first coined by Jack Duganne, a printmaker, to represent an inkjet-based digital print used as fine art. To qualify for the title of a "giclée print" it should be made on archival quality coated paper, and printed with pigment based archival inks, which are UV stable. The Fine Art Trade Guild has set minimum standards for a giclee print - it must score 6 or greater on the Blue Wool Scale for light fastness, and be between 7pH - 10pH, on a minimum substrate of 250gsm.

To achieve a very high standard of colour reproduction with neutral greys, a typical giclee printer will use a twelve colour pigment based ink set, comprising of red, blue, green, grey, photo grey, cyan, photo cyan, magenta, photo magenta, yellow, regular black, and matte black. A giclee print made using pigment inks can be lightfast for up to 100+ years, but this depends on factors such as paper type and storage conditions. By using pigment based archival inks, the archival properties of a giclee print are significantly higher than traditional silkscreen or litho prints.

Scanning or Digitising your Artwork

The first step is to digitise your original painting or artwork. A very high quality scan is made that accurately captures all the colour and detail of the original. Good colour management in the form of ICC (international colour consortium) profiles of the scanner, computer screen and printer ensure that the final print is as close as possible to the original for colour and density.

The quality of the paper or canvas used in a giclee print is very important. Paper mills such as Hahnemühle, who have been producing mould made artist papers for over 425 years, have an extensive range of fine art papers used in giclee printing. The final result will be a superb giclee print, often on the same media as the original artwork.

Once the scan or digital file is made, you can print on demand - order as many copies or as few as you wish. You are not committed to the high quantities or costs of offset litho printing and therefore cut down your costs by only printing what you sell. You don't have unsold prints to store, and you also have the option to print your work on different paper types and at different sizes.

Print Quality

What sort of problems might an artist expect when choosing to produce a giclée print from an original artwork? There are only two issues to be concerned about - scan quality and choosing the right media to print on. Getting the scan right is probably the most important factor in the whole process, there is an old saying in the scanning industry - rubbish in, rubbish out - in other words if you start with a poor quality scan then you will be disappointed with the final result. If you already have a digital file and are uncertain of its quality, we offer a free service to check your file's suitability to print to a stated size and to highlight any other issues that may effect the quality of your print.

Techniques to Enhance your Giclée Print

By adding some decorative detail or features you can enhance your giclee print or canvas to make it special. Some artists like to paint over areas of their giclée print with opaque or semi opaque media to create a unique effect. One method is to use an acrylic texturing gel onto your giclée print or canvas to give that "original" oil paint look. This dense milky white, water based gel is applied with a brush and dries to a clear, natural brush stroke appearance. This over-painting technique creates a fantastic textured look that also increases the contrast and saturation of the image, as well as adding some additional scuff protection.

Torn or Deckle Edge Effect

Another interesting effect is deckled edges on a fine art print, it resembles the feathery edge of handmade and mould made paper, which has a natural deckle and is the result of the natural run-off of wet pulp when the paper is made.

This can either be done by hand and involves ripping the borders to create the effect or there are Photoshop techniques for creating torn or deckle edges around your image.

Received the proofs and they look fantastic - many thanks for that - Roderick Gordon

Choose from a range of Fine Art Print media:

Click here to order your Printed Sample Pack of all available Fine Art Print Media.
There is a £7.50 charge for the sample pack, but you will receive a £15 discount off your first print order.

One advantage that digital printing offers to the artist and publisher is that the edition can be printed on demand. Giclée images reproduced from your original paintings, watercolours or drawings are recorded as a digital file and can be produced whenever required.

An archived copy of your image file can be kept for you to call off single or multiple copies at any time, this enables you to avoid the high cost and risk of producing a complete print edition all at once.

Sending your files to Redcliffe:

Upload your files direct to our FTP Server
E-mail your files to fineartphoto@redcliffe.co.uk
Post your CD to Redcliffe Imaging, 21 Dragon Court, Crofts End Road, Bristol BS5 7XX.

Order with confidence on line using our Fine Art Print Order Form with SSL Secure Payment facility. Or if you prefer not to order on line you can just print and post your completed PDF Order Form with your CD of image file(s) together with your cheque or credit/debit card payment details.

Have taken delivery today. Fantastic service, result better than I had imagined. Many thanks - Nick Armitage

For more information or advice on Giclee Printing call Tim Sale or Adrian Chambers on 0117 952 0105 or use the contact form to tell us your requirements, we can suggest the most appropriate solution for your fine art printing needs.