The early pioneers of fine art digital printing needed a proper name for the digital technology and the prints they were making. By the end of the 1980's, IRIS printers were installed all over the world and spinning off full-color proofs in commercial printing plants and pre-press shops. These prints were used to check color and get client approval before making the main print run. They were definitely not meant to last or to be displayed on anyone's walls. They were called "IRIS proofs," or "IRIS prints" or merely "IRISes."

The new digital fine art printmakers wanted to draw a distinction between the beautiful prints they were laboring over and the quickie proofs that the commercial printers were cranking out. They needed a new label, or in marketing terms, a "brand identity." The makers of digital art needed a word of their own.

In 1991, Jack Duganne of Nash Editions came up with a print-medium description for a mailer announcing one of their artist client's upcoming shows. He wanted to stay away from the words "digital" or "computer" because of the negative connotations the art world attached to the new medium.

Taking the cue for the French word for inkjet (jet d'encre) he searched for a word that was generic enough to cover most inkjet technologies at the time and hopefully into the future. He focused on the nozzle, which most printers used. In French, that was "le giclieur." What nozzles do is spray ink, and "that which is sprayed" is the French word, the industry moniker that we all are now familiar with - giclée.

Other industry figures came up with "digigraph," which was close to seriograph and photograph, but soon the term "giclée" became a synonym for "an art print made on an IRIS inkjet printer."

Some artists object to the suggestive French slang meaning ("spurt"). Others believe the term is still too closely linked to the IRIS printer or to the reproduction market. Some feel it is just too pretentious. But for many, the term giclee has become art of the printmaking landscape, a generic word, like "Kleenex" that has evolved into a broader term that describes any high-quality digitally produced fine-art print.

Of course, when a term becomes too broad, it loses its ability to describe a specific thing. At that point, it stops being a good marketing tool. In recent five years or so, this term has gotten a bad reputation from the many quickie repro stores that offer "giclée" at cut-rate prices printed by rote on non-archival materials. For this reason, Photo Colorgraphix eschews the term "giclée," preferring the terms "digital fine art canvas reproduction" and "digital fine art watercolor reproduction."

The fine art digital reproductions made by Photo Colorgraphix are collaboration between the artist and a specially trained printing craftsman. We have expanded our boundaries by customizing our equipment, and offer protective coatings to ensure archivability and quality standards for the collector.