Giclée printing produces top-grade fine art prints that are equally popular among artists and art collectors. Using an online printing service is usually cheaper than going to the print shop near you. That’s why I’ve sorted out the best fine art printing services for Giclee that allow you to place your order online and offer the highest quality Giclee prints on photographic paper or canvas!
Giclée prints on fine art paper are the way to go for many artists. Why? Because they are an easy way to sell high-quality reproductions of artwork.
Back in the day, it was only possible to sell a painting once. And when that piece of art was sold, that was it.
Now, with all the technology at our fingertips, both traditional and digital artists can offer an unlimited number of copies of their creations. As a result, artists are able to showcase and sell their art to a wider audience. And in return, more people are able to afford having an art print of their favorite artist in their home.
You see, fine art printing is a win-win for everyone!
Giclee prints are offered either on photographic paper or canvas. When printing Giclee on photographic paper, you usually need to choose finish and framing option. Popular photographic finishes are matte and glossy, with matte being the better option for framing.
Not every artist has a fine art printing service near them. But luckily, nowadays it’s no problem to have your fine art printed online.
Online printing services for artists tend to offer cheaper prices, while providing the same top-grade quality!
In this post, I’ve sorted out 5 of the best Giclee printing services on the web and compiled them on the list below.
But before we dive in: what is actually Giclee printing, exactly?
What is Giclee printing?
Giclee printing creates the highest quality prints available in the market. That’s why Giclee prints are so popular among artists and art collectors.
The name ‘Giclee’ comes from French, that’s why you sometimes also find it written ‘Giclée’ (with an accent on the e). It is pronounced ‘gee-klay’ and was coined in 1991 by printmaker Jack Duganne.
Giclee printing is done with inkjet printers on archival media, which can be either photographic paper or canvas.
What is the difference between a Giclee and a print?
The difference between a Giclee and a regular print is basically the method of production and the materials used.
Not all prints are Giclee prints, even when created with an inkjet printer.
There are certain criteria that a print needs to meet to be considered a Giclee.
First of all, the inkjet printer must use a set of 12 pigment-based inks. Traditional printers use a combination of 4 inks: Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black (K) – also known as CMYK.
Pigment-based inks are more enduring than regular inks and achieve a wider color gamut and smoother gradient transitions. That’s why Giclee prints look so vibrant and rich.
Next, Giclee papers must be archival quality. That means the photographic paper or canvas must be acid-free, with a pH value of 7.0 or higher.
This is very important because any acid in the paper will mix with the inks, making them fade and grow dull. The very best art printing papers consist of cotton rag or wood cellulose, or a combination of the two.
To learn more about the different papers, check out the Best Paper For Printing Digital Art.
What resolution should a Giclee print be?
To create a high-quality Giclée print, the image you use to make that print needs to have a high resolution. The minimum resolution should be 300 dots per inch (DPI, or PPI for pixels per inch). The higher, the better.
Why? Because the DPI accounts for the detail in the print.
In order to make your Giclée print look good, you need to increase the number of dots that make up your image.
To learn more about saving your work for print, check out the Best File Format For Printing Digital Art.
What are the best fine art printing services for Giclee?
Since not all online printing services for artists do offer Giclee prints, I’ve taken a good look at the fine art printing services available in the market and sorted out the 5 best Giclee printing services!
5 Best Fine Art Printing Services for Giclee:
The list includes fine art printing services that specifically focus on Giclee printing, but also some print-on-demand providers that offer a range of products and are easy to integrate into you store on Etsy, Squarespace or Shopify, or your own artist website.
So, let’s go!
5 Best Fine Art Printing Services For Giclee
The Stackhouse is a professional fine art printing service for Giclee. It is equally popular among artists and galleries because of its high-quality products.
All Giclee prints are produced using the highest quality of inkjet printers, pigment inks, and archival papers from Epson and Hahnemuehl. The prints produced have museum-quality. That’s why exhibitions, galleries, art shows, and museums order their prints from the Stackhouse.
You can choose from a wide range of print sizes and finishing options. Production time is really fast and usually doesn’t take longer than 3 business days!
Printful is one of the biggest print-on-demand providers in the market. They offer a wide range of customizable products, including Giclee prints on photographic paper or canvas.
As a PoD provider, Printful handles everything for you – from manufacturing, to order fulfillment and delivery. It is easy to integrate into your existing online store, for example on Etsy or Shopify, or your WooCommerce artist website. The company ships internationally at very attractive rates. There are no minimum order requirements and subscription fees on the basic plan.
If you want to get more advanced features or use Printful on a professional basis, there’s the Pro Plan for $49 a month. The free plan is totally enough for printing art occasionally. If you are selling large numbers of prints every month, you can start a free 14-day trial of Printful’s Pro Plan to see if it’s a fit for you!
Giclee Today is another fine art printing service for Giclee that offers high quality at affordable prices. You can choose from a range of premium archival papers and canvas prints with UV coating.
Giclee Today dropships your prints worldwide, including hand-numbered editions. Just like Printful, you can link Giclee Today directly to your e-commerce store. While there are no minimum order requirements, Giclee Today is also the only company to offer volume discounts for images at multiple sizes on the same paper.
Another reason why Giclee Today ranks among the best online printing services for artists is their customizability. If you want a paper or a print that is not listed on the website, it’s no problem to place a custom order.
Prints Giclee Shop is an artist-owned fine art printing service with more than 15 years of experience. The company offers archival-quality Giclee prints on photographic paper and canvas.
All prints are produced in their factory in Miami, Florida, and inspected by an in-house expert before shipping. If needed, you can have the Prints Giclee Shop mount and frame your artwork. There are a variety of framing options to choose from, including floater frames for canvas prints.
Ordering prints is super-easy. All you need to do is upload your art and choose your print. The Prints Giclee Shop offers attractive discounts for professionals, and everyone will get 20% off their first order.
Pictorem is another print-on-demand provider on our list of the best fine art printing services for Giclee. Pictorem features a large selection of prints, including canvas prints, acrylic prints, mural prints, metal prints, wood prints, and photo prints.
Once you’ve created a free account on Pictorem, you can upload your artwork and select a product. You can choose from more than 30 custom sizes of Giclee prints in gallery quality that will last 200+ years. You can set your own prices and once a customer orders your product, Pictorem dropships it to the customer.
Unfortunately, Pictorem doesn’t ship outside of the US and Canada, but the good thing is that there are no shipping costs!
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