Guild Articles and Editorials

    Paul Andrus

Part 3: Preparing your work for Giclée Printing

1. There are several methods for preparing your artwork for making giclée prints.

2. You could have it scanned professionally if it is small enough (24” or less).

3. You could have it photographed professionally with a digital camera.

4. You could supply the printer with either a 35mm slide or a 4x5 transparency.  Both of which would require you to have your work professionally photographed under professional lighting.

5. You could use a good non glossy quality photograph (5x7 or 8x 10).

What you have to remember is that your giclée print can only be as good as material given to the printer to use.  So, if you are using slides be sure that it is of the highest quality and that it gives you the image and colors that you desire.  Some alterations can be made, by the giclée artist, with the various software programs now available.  But, it is best that you provide the most accurate sample possible.

Once you have your digital in hand make sure that it is in “jpeg” form and a minimum of 90 dpi (dots per inch).  A good printer can then enhance this to the proper size of 300 dpi without any pixilation loss.  There are special programs that do this for you and are quite costly.  If you ever question the costs of the process keep in mind that this is not at all a cheap process.  The inks, the software, training and the machine and station set up are all very expensive items.  The going rate for most giclee printers is .20 - .25 cents per square inch.  And the cost of turning it into a digitally enhanced image can be from $35.00 to $300.00, depending on size.  Again, my rate to all CAG members is .10 cents per square inch and I throw in the digitalizing and set up for free.  I do charge a nominal fee of $5.00 if you wish me to photograph your work for you, but you would have to bring it to me.

My next article will be on the benefits of making multiple series works from Giclées.

Paul Andrus