The term Giclee (pronounced zhee-clay) is traditionally used to describe fine art reproductions of original paintings, watercolors, charcoal sketches, and pen and ink drawings created on high quality inkjet printers using a combination of fine art media and pigment based inks. Giclee prints are created by "spraying" pigment based inks onto the fine art media. The spraying process effectively creates a continuous tone print with no visible dots. The pigment based inks result in a high quality print with excellent color accuracy, color fastness (fade resistance), and longevity. Depending on the combination of equipment, media, and inks used to created the prints, giclee prints can have life spans in excess of 100 to 200 years.

Giclee prints created at San Diego Photos and Prints are printed on a variety of fine art media including smooth or textured fine art paper, litho realistic paper, artists canvas, super heavyweight plus matte paper, or photographic papers (satin, glossy, or metallic). 

The word "giclee", is derived from the French  word "le gicleur" meaning "nozzle", or more specifically "gicler" meaning "to squirt, spurt, or spray" and was was coined by Jack Duganne, a printmaker working in the fine art reproduction field, to represent any inkjet based digital print sold as a fine art reproduction. Professionally created Giclee prints have a high degeree of color accuracy. Giclee prints can look so close to the original that even the artist has difficulty telling them apart.

Our Giclee prints are created on a Hewlet Packard fine art printing system using pigment based inks and specially formulated, pH balanced fine art media. This combination of inks and media results in high quality giclee reproductions with excellent color saturation, color fastness and fade resistance. The projected lifespan of our giclee prints is more than 200 years.

For more information about Print Permanence Ratings visit Wilhelm-Research.

Giclee reproductions may be offered as "open edition" or "limited edition" at the discretion of the artist.

A Certificate Of Authenticity will be provided by the artist with each giclee print purchased at SanDiegoArtists.net.

Limited Edition prints are inspected, then signed and numbered by the artist. Open edition prints are inspected for quality control, then packaged and shipped. Some open edition prints are also signed by the artist.