Giclee (Iris Print)

Giclee; French, "to spurt"

This once state- of- the- art ink jet, was commonly used to produce photo mechanical, copies of fine art works. A variety of finishes and inks can be used to best replicate the original work, on a variety of materials from vinyl and watercolor paper to canvas.

These prints did offer a high degree of color accuracy and color saturation, unequaled in other prints of their type in it's day.

Today Giclees, or Iris prints are obsolete. Not to say these are not of a good quality. Do remember:

• "Giclees" is now used so broadly, that you must be certain what type of printer was actually used to produce it, before passing any judgment.
• Are the inks are dye-based, or pigment- based, the letter being of an archival quality, where the dyes are not.

Unfortunately, there are many galleries that spent too much money buying these prints in earlier years and are still trying to make their mark-up off an unsuspecting public. As the technolgy is moving in leaps and bounds over the past decade, there is much rubish to be had on the market today. I speak of prints made that are not archival and using now obsolete technology.

Either you think it looks good or not, but if creat3ed with an obsolete machine, it may very well fade and needs additional care to keep from fading. I of course have suggestion tfor many of this folks, as I have personally experiemented with these dyes incorporating secondary formats, mediums, supports and materials for conservation purposes. My method increases the value of any print, yet is not cheap for myself to do on Commission, which I would do, FYI...

 

Epson for instance, offers a printer that breaks all the barriers of longevity, with some Ultra-Chrome prints lasting 200+years in accellerated laboratory tests. These are the finest prints known to date in laboratory tests. Hewlett Packard has released a printer that also competes in this class of printer.

Roland Late models may use pigments

So buyer beware. Don't buy an Iris print!!! If you do, don't pay too much. They are rated at about 100 years, which isn't too bad. It's certainly better than many of the low quality dye prints being pawned off on an unsuspecting and uneducated public. If they won't sell it for an expensive poster price, don't buy it.

The key is to do your homework when buying art. Find out the printer used and go to "www.WilhelmResearch.com" online, to check the longevity of the inks.