Maybe it’s in a product description, maybe in an email, definitely on this blog. What is it?

First of all, it’s pronounced zhee-klay if you were wondering.

Ultimately it’s the difference between a print that looks good for a little while and a print that holds its own for decades.

The French word gicleur means “to spray.” This is what a giclée print actually is: ink sprayed finely and precisely onto paper or canvas.

A printer named Jack Duganne invented the term in the 1990s when he needed a name for a new, high-resolution inkjet printing method he’d created for fine art reproduction.

In practice, it’s more than just a nice inkjet. Giclée printing is done with pigment-based inks instead of dyes, on archival paper or canvas (instead of photo paper), and at incredibly high resolutions usually over 1,200 dpi.

That means:

• Giclée prints don’t fade for up to 100 years.
• Colours are rich and vibrant with deep blacks for contrast.
• Every line, brushstroke, and soft blend is printed with total accuracy.

Giclée is the kind of printing you do if you want it to look like the real thing. And, importantly, to last like the real thing.

When you hang something on your wall, you want it to belong there. That means it can’t just be something that’s hanging there just sort of because. It needs to hold its presence, intentional, and feel almost permanent. Like it’s been there longer than the wall.

Giclée prints do that. They’ve got the density, texture, and tone. If it’s a Monet, you’ll see the softness and light. If it’s a Matisse, you’ll get the boldness and simplicity. If it’s a Klimt? The gold practically glows.

It’s not just the quality of the pigment inks either. At Inka Arthouse, our giclée prints are made on heavyweight, archival, gallery-quality paper. The paper that’s made to last. It won’t curl, it won’t fade, and it won’t yellow.

It’s the difference between wearing a cotton tee and a well-cut wool coat. You can do both. But one lasts.

It’s not just for show. We print giclée because we care about how your art looks, now and into the future.

We sell prints by artists Hokusai, Monet, and Van Gogh whose work deserves to be presented as accurately and beautifully as possible. Plus we sell prints from contemporary artists and photographers who are very much alive and want their work treated with respect.

Printing matters. The medium changes the messages. A giclée print makes your wall art worth of the frame — and of being looked at again and again and again.

When it shows up at your place? You’ll know the difference.

For printing a fun joke to put on an office cubicle? Maybe not. But if you’re printing a Matisse you want on your wall for years to come, then yes. Absolutely. A giclée print isn’t just about better quality. It’s about lasting quality.

A framed giclée print isn’t the kind of thing you just put up. It’s the kind of thing you build a room around. 

Want to experience a giclée print for yourself? Shop the Inka Arthouse collection. Find something worth framing.