Giclee Prints

A canvas print, also known as a stretched canvas or canvas art, is the result of an image onto canvas which is stretched, or gallery-wrapped, onto a frame and displayed.

Reproductions of original artwork have been printed on canvas for many decades using offset printing. Since the 1990s, canvas print has been associated with either dye sublimation or inkjet print processes (often referred to as Repligraph and Giclée respectively). The canvas print material is generally cotton and canvas prints online only offer the highest quallty poly-cotton canvas.

Modern large format printers are capable of printing onto canvas rolls measuring 60″ or more. Modern examples of inkjet-based printers capable of printing directly onto canvas are the HP Designjet z6100 and the Epson Stylus Pro 9880. Artists and printers can now print directly onto canvas media.

400 gsm is generally stated to be a good weight for canvas wall art.

Giclée (pronounced /ʒiːˈkleɪ/ “zhee-clay” or /dʒiːˈkleɪ, from French [ʒiˈkle]) is an invented name. The word “giclée” is derived from the French language word “le gicleur” meaning “nozzle”, or more specifically “gicler” meaning “to squirt, spurt, or spray”[1]. It was coined in 1991 by Jack Duganne, a printmaker working in the field, to represent any inkjet-based digital print used as fine art. The intent of that name was to distinguish commonly known industrial "Iris proofs" from the type of fine art prints artists were producing on those same types of printers. The name was originally applied to fine art prints created on Iris printers in a process invented in the early 1990s but has since come to mean any high quality ink-jet print and is often used in galleries and print shops to denote such prints.

Beside its association with Iris prints, in the past few years, the word “giclée,” as a fine art term, has come to be associated with prints using fade-resistant “archival” inks (including solvent inks) and the inkjet printers that use them. The Printers have mulitple cartridges but variations for each colour can be found through the CcMmYK color model (e.g. a higher resolution, smoother transition of gradient and a wider gamut. A wide variety of substrates are available including various textures and finishes such as matte photo paper, watercolor paper, cotton canvas, or artist textured vinyl. This emerging market has resulted in a whole new industry.