Gicleés
can be printed on any number of media, from canvas to watercolor
paper to transparent acetates. Gclee's are superior to traditional
lithography in several ways. The colors are brighter, last longer,
and are so high-resolution that they are virtually continuous
tone, rather than tiny dots. The range, or "gamut" of
color for gicleés is far beyond that of lithography, and
details are crisper.
Lithography uses
tiny dots of four colors--cyan, magenta, yellow and black--to
fool the eye into seeing various hues and shades. Colors are "created"
by printing different size dots of these four colors.
Gicleés
use inkjet technology, but far more sophisticated than your desktop
printer. The process employs
six colors--light cyan, cyan, light magenta, magenta, yellow and
black--of lightfast, pigmented inks and finer, more numerous,
and replaceable print heads resulting in a wider color gamut,
and the ability to use various media to print on. The ink is sprayed
onto the page, actually mixing the color on the page to create
true shades and hues.
They are priced
midway between original art and regular limited edition lithographs.
Limited edition litho prints are usually produced in editions
of 500-1000 or more, all at once; but gicleés rarely exceed 50-100
reproductions, one at a time.