What is a Certified Redfish Giclee?

The word giclee (pronounced “ghee-clay”) is French for “to squirt” or “spurt”. It is a relatively new digital process and has been around since 1985.

The original painting (the artist’s image) is digitally captured by an ultra-sophisticated digital professional 4 X 5 camera containing 108 million pixels (about 335 Mb per shot), using a state of the art universal spectrum polarized lighting system.

After color correction and proofing, a giclee of the original is printed onto water fast canvas or rag paper using a series of tiny spray nozzles that emit many millions of droplets per second. This method gives a much higher resolution than lithography. Because of the way the millions of drops are sprayed and mixed using the 7 color pigmented ink system, you get a wider range of color than almost any other type of print available on the market, with up to 16.3 million colors.

If wanted (for giclees printed on canvas only), the canvas is then coated with three coats of custom varnish to give it a rich, finished look and added protection. The most important thing is that the canvas is water fast and the color is pigment. Never accept a giclee printed with dye-based inks on non-water fast canvas or paper!

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