What Is a Giclée Print — and Why Does It Actually Matter?
If you've ever stood in front of a piece of art at a festival and thought "I love this, but I can't quite afford the original" — this post is for you.
I hear some version of the same question at almost every art festival I do. Someone picks up one of my prints, turns it over, looks at the back, and asks: "So is this a photograph of your painting?"
It's a fair question. The word "giclée" gets thrown around a lot in the art world — sometimes as a genuine mark of quality, sometimes as a fancy way of saying "we printed something." After years of making them, I want to give you the honest answer: what a giclée print actually is, what separates a good one from a bad one, and whether it's worth buying for your home.
The simple answer first
A giclée print (pronounced "zhee-KLAY") is a high-resolution fine art print made using professional inkjet technology and archival inks on archival paper or canvas. The word comes from the French verb "gicler," meaning to spray or squirt — a reference to how the ink is applied.
That's the technical definition. But here's what it means in practice: when I create a giclée print of one of my paintings, I'm not just running it through an office printer. The original painting is captured using a high-resolution scan or professional photography. That file is then printed using specialized equipment with pigment-based inks on museum-grade paper or canvas — materials engineered specifically to resist fading for decades, sometimes over a century.
What makes one giclée print better than another
This is where it gets important, because not all giclée prints are created equal. The word has become common enough that it can appear on prints of very different quality. Here's what I look for — and what you should ask about:
The paper or canvas. Archival-quality substrates are acid-free, meaning they won't yellow or degrade over time the way cheaper papers do. When I choose a paper for my prints, I'm looking at its longevity rating — many of the papers I use are rated for well over 100 years under normal display conditions.
The inks. Pigment-based inks are the gold standard. They don't fade the way dye-based inks do when exposed to light. If you've ever noticed a poster on a sun-facing wall start to look washed out within a year or two, that's almost certainly dye-based ink doing what dye-based ink does.
The resolution of the original capture. A great giclée starts with a great scan or photograph of the original painting. If that step is rushed, you lose the subtle texture and tonal nuance that makes the print feel alive — you end up with something that looks slightly flat or digital. One example from my own work: several of my coastal and landscape paintings incorporate actual sand embedded directly into the paint surface. The texture this creates is real and physical — and capturing it faithfully in a giclée requires exceptional scan resolution and color calibration. When done right, that texture reads in the print in a way that makes it feel alive. It's one of the reasons I'm particular about how my originals are captured before printing.
Color calibration. A good print lab calibrates their equipment carefully so what you see on screen matches what comes off the press. This sounds like a small thing, but it's the difference between a print that feels like the painting and one that looks like a copy of the painting.
How a giclée compares to a poster or a regular print
I get asked this a lot, and it's worth being direct about it. A poster is designed to be affordable and accessible. It's usually printed on standard paper with commercial inks, often in large batches, and it's not built to last decades. There's nothing wrong with that — posters have their place.
A giclée is something different. It's made to be an art object in its own right. The color depth, the texture of the paper, the way the ink sits on the surface — these all create something that has presence on a wall in a way a poster simply doesn't. When my prints are framed and hung, visitors to people's homes often can't tell immediately whether they're looking at an original or a print. That's not an accident. That's the result of using the right materials and the right process.
Limited edition vs. open edition — and why it matters for value
My prints come in two forms. Open edition prints are available without a set limit on how many are made — they're a more accessible entry point into collecting my work. Limited edition prints are numbered and signed, with a fixed maximum number ever produced. Once that number is reached, no more are made.
From a collecting perspective, limited editions hold their value better over time. They're also a different kind of ownership — knowing that you have number 12 of 50 of a piece means something. It's a real relationship with a specific, finite object. I always include a certificate of authenticity with limited edition prints, and each one is hand-signed.
Why I believe in them as an artist
I paint because I want to capture something true about a place, a light, a moment. My originals live with one person — and I love that. But giclée prints mean the same painting can bring that feeling into multiple homes. That matters to me.
I've met collectors who started with one of my prints, lived with it for a year, fell in love with it, and came back for an original. I've met people who simply wanted something beautiful on their wall that didn't cost thousands of dollars, and a print gave them that. Both of those outcomes feel good to me.
If you're standing at a crossroads between a print and an original, I'm happy to talk you through it. There's no wrong answer — only the right answer for your wall, your home, and your budget.
Quick answers to questions I hear most often
How long will a giclée print last?
With archival inks and paper, and reasonable care — kept out of direct sunlight, in a stable environment — a quality giclée print can last well over 100 years. They're genuinely heirloom-quality objects.
Can I tell a giclée from the original?
Up close, yes — a painting has physical texture from the brushwork that a print doesn't fully replicate. At normal viewing distance on a wall, a high-quality giclée is genuinely difficult to distinguish from the original, especially when framed well.
Do giclée prints need special framing?
Not special, but thoughtful. UV-protective glass helps significantly if the print will be in a bright room. Acid-free matting and backing materials will help the print stay pristine inside the frame. Any good frame shop will know exactly what to do.
Browse my giclée print collection at brienberberichart.com/collections/giclee-prints — or if you're curious about a specific piece, feel free to reach out directly. I'm always happy to talk about the work.
— Brien Berberich
Contemporary artist working in atmospheric landscapes, coastal scenes, and abstraction. Based in the US, selling original paintings and museum-quality giclée prints at brienberberichart.com