Giclée (pronounced zhee-clay) - the word is derived from the french verb gicler meaning ... to spray.

A giclée print (also known as an Iris print) is a piece of printed artwork or photograph produced by using a high quality digital inkjet printer. Images from high resolution digital files are printed with archival quality inks onto various media and artwork can be reproduced to almost any size, giving the artist the ability to customize prints for a specific client.

Extremely fine droplets of ink are spurted onto heavy water-colour paper or artist's canvas. These droplets are controlled by computer so that the resolution of the printed image is much finer than conventional printing. Exact calculations of hue, value and density are achieved by directing over four million droplets of ink through four printer nozzles. This produces a combination of 512 chromatic changes (with over three million colors possible).

Giclées have the highest apparent resolution available today - as high as 1,800 dpi - because a variable dot size is used to create the density of color on the print, instead of equally sized dots which can only achieve an effect of 600-1000 dpi. In addition, since no screens are used, the prints have a higher apparent resolution than lithographs and a color range that exceeds that of serigraphy. Displaying a full color spectrum, giclée prints capture every nuance of the original and have gained wide acceptance from artists and galleries throughout the world.