Giclée Printing at Hockensmith’s Fine Art Editions

Giclée is a form of digital fine-art printmaking often associated with limited-edition prints.
A giclée print is a digital reproduction of the original artwork on various substrates.

Giclée printing for artists

A giclée (pronounced “gee-CLAY”) is a meticulously faithful digital reproduction of original artwork or photos on any of various substrates or print media. The word giclée comes from French and means “to spurt, to squirt.” Pioneer Jack Duganne chose this word as he innovated with this new form of printmaking in the early 1990s.

Giclée printmaking is now recognized by museums as the best means of printmaking to emerge in the 20th century. Based on digital technology, the primary purpose of giclée printmaking is to create museum-quality limited editions for artists working in two-dimensional media. Giclée is also a way for innovative photographers to express their photographic art. Tightly controlled limited giclée prints introduce an artist’s work to a wider market while still maintaining the worth of the original work.

The artistic and technological skills combined with state-of-the-art equipment and museum quality substrate options allow Hockensmith’s Fine Art Editions the capabilities to be one of few printmaking houses in the country that focuses on the faithful reproduction of an artist’s vision.

Proper Setup

The giclée process setup involves capturing a proper scan of the original artwork. We use a 36 megapixel DSLR camera with a polarized fixed-lens to capture a clean, 100 MB high-resolution digital image without glare, unequal light, or distortion.

The process for making this capture depends on the original art and sometimes requires trial and error with lighting and filtering techniques. After we acquire a proper image file, the image is imported into the latest digital editing software to make additional color and lighting corrections in order to match the original work.

Color Fidelity

Absolute color correction is required to achieve color rendering identical to the original art. To achieve “perfect” color rendering in the giclée process, we must print the artwork and evaluate colors in all regions, tweaking and adjusting selective colors while reprinting until the color values have reached visual equality. We also address color issues with expert-level Photoshop techniques.

General color correction is quicker and consequentially less expensive. For many giclée projects general color correction is all that is necessary. For some artists, the enhanced colors possible with the giclée process are considered to make it more marketable.

Options and Pricing

Fine Art Editions Gallery and Press is a full scale printing house, which means your artwork and photographs are printed right here in our Georgetown gallery and never leave the careful hands of our trained staff. Your art is printed on one of three substrates: semi-matte paper, watercolor paper, or canvas.

The individual print cost is determined by the square inches of the overall substrate. Artists have the choice to print on semi-matte paper, watercolor paper, or canvas. Our Epson Stylus Pro 9800 and 7800 wide-body print Epson or Symphonic dyes, giving accuracy to original colors. Hand-torn deckled edges can be added to watercolor prints, and black-edge gallery wrap give a sleek finish to canvas prints. Luster prints are also available, created with the same inks on luminous paper.

For specific pricing on your order, please call us at (502) 863-2299 or email us at commissions@finearteditions.net for more information to initiate the process of turning your art into giclée prints.

Quality and Consistency

Your giclée prints are beautiful—why aren’t others?

This is similar to other questions: Why do some guitars make better music than others? Why do some ovens produce gourmet foods while others just heat up food? Why do some pastels, acrylics, or oils produce masterpieces and the same art supplies fail in other hands?

The science of digital printing is ultimately controlled by the discretion of the printmaker. The whole giclée process requires the creative judgments of the attending technician. Giclée printing is one of the brave new frontiers where the digital world meets the seasoned intuition of an experienced artist. There is no shortcut or pure automation that produces great music, sensational food, fabulous paintings, or exquisite giclée prints. Each of these expressive endeavors requires the discretionary decisions of its respective artist.


We pride ourselves in offering services for every stage of your imaging needs. After your images are printed, we invite you to have them custom framed by our framing specialist team headed by Mark Sweazy. Learn more about custom framing at Fine Art Editions.
