What is a giclée canvas print?

Where the word comes from

The term was coined in 1991 by the American printmaker Jack Duganne, who wanted a name for the fine-art prints he was making on the first high-resolution inkjet machines. He borrowed the French verb gicler, to spray or squirt, which is exactly what the printer does.

How a giclée canvas is made

1. A high-resolution picture. The print can only be as fine as its file, so it starts from a large, clean image.
2. Pigment inks, sprayed in tiny droplets. A large-format printer lays down microscopic dots of archival ink in many colors. From any normal distance the dots vanish and you see continuous tone, as in a painting.
3. Archival canvas. The ink goes onto a heavy canvas made for printing. Ours is a 360 gsm blend of cotton and polyester with a semi-gloss finish.
4. Stretching. The printed canvas is pulled tight over a frame of wooden bars and fixed at the back. Ours is 1.25 in deep, with the picture mirrored around the edges so no part of the portrait is lost on the sides.

Giclée or poster

Both are prints, and the difference is in the materials. A poster is printed fast on thin paper, usually with dye inks that can fade within a few years in a bright room. A giclée uses pigment inks and an archival surface, holds finer detail and deeper color, and is made to last for generations.

Giclée or painting

A giclée is a print of a picture, not a painting. The canvas is real, with a real woven surface you can see and touch. The brushwork you see is part of the image: there are no ridges of paint standing up from the surface, as there would be on an oil painting.

That is the honest trade. A painting is a single original made by hand over weeks. A giclée is an exact, lasting print that costs a fraction of the price. Our guide to AI and hand-painted pet portraits sets the two side by side.

How long it lasts

Our printer rates its canvas and inks to resist fading for over 100 years. What shortens the life of any print is the same as for a painting: direct sunlight, damp and heat.

Looking after a canvas

• Hang it out of direct sun, and away from radiators and fireplaces that are in use.
• Keep it out of bathrooms and other steamy rooms.
• Dust it with a soft, dry cloth. No water, no sprays, no cleaning products.
• Lift it by the wooden frame at the back, not by the face of the canvas.

What ours is made of

Canvas	Archival poly-cotton, 360 gsm, semi-gloss finish
Print	Giclée with archival inks
Frame	Solid wood stretcher bars, 1.25 in deep
Edges	Picture mirrored around the sides
Hanging	Sawtooth hanger attached
Made	To order, in the USA

See the canvas from the front, the edge and the back on the first page, where you can turn it around.