Giclée vs. Regular Art Prints: What’s the Difference?
If you want an art print that looks like an actual watercolor painting fifty years from now rather than a faded, sad ghost of itself, you need a giclée. Standard prints are perfectly fine for temporary posters, but they rely on cheap dye inks that break down fast.
What actually makes a print a giclée?
Let's demystify the term. Giclée (pronounced zhee-clay) was coined in 1991 by printmaker Jack Duganne from the French verb gicler, meaning "to spray" or "to squirt." It is just a fancy way of describing how a high-end printer distributes ink.
For us at Belula Art, printing this way is the only option that makes sense. To qualify as a true giclée, the print must meet three strict standards:
- Resolution: The digital file must be captured at no less than 300 DPI to avoid any pixelation.
- Pigment Inks: Unlike standard dye-based liquid inks, giclées use pigment-based inks made of tiny, chemically stable solid particles that resist UV light.
- Archival Paper: The artwork must be printed on acid-free, 100% cotton or rag base paper—like Hahnemühle, Canson, or Moab—to prevent yellowing.
To ensure museum-grade longevity, look for prints on papers that avoid Optical Brightening Agents (OBAs), as these chemicals degrade and cause paper to lose its brightness over time.
How long do they really last?
Standard dye-based prints show visible fading in 5 to 10 years. In contrast, under normal framed conditions, pigment-based giclées resist fading for 100 to over 200 years. If we are going to pay framing prices—which often cost more than the art itself—we want that paper to survive. Professional giclée setups use 8 to 12 ink cartridges, offering way smoother color transitions than a standard 4-ink offset printer.
