The Definition : Gicleé (zhee-klay) - The French word "gicleé" is a feminine noun that means a spray or a spurt of liquid. The word may have been derived from the French verb "gicler" meaning "to squirt".

The Term : The term  "Gicleé print" connotes an elevation in printmaking technology. Images are generated from high resolution digital scans and printed with archival quality inks onto various substrates including canvas, fine art, and photo-base paper. The Gicleé printing process provides better color accuracy than other means of reproduction.

The Process : Gicleé prints are created typically using professional 8-Color to 12-Color ink-jet printers. Among the manufacturers of these printers are vanguards such as Epson, MacDermid Colorspan, & Hewlett-Packard. These modern technology printers are capable of producing incredibly detailed prints for both the fine art and photographic markets. Gicleé prints are sometimes mistakenly referred to as Iris prints, which are 4-Color ink-jet prints from a printer pioneered in the late 1970s by Iris Graphics

 The Advantages  : Gicleé prints are advantageous to artists who do not find it feasible to mass produce their work, but want to reproduce their art as needed, or on-demand. Once an image is digitally archived, additional reproductions can be made with minimal effort and reasonable cost. The prohibitive up-front cost of mass production for an edition is eliminated.

Archived files will not deteriorate in quality as negatives and film inherently do. Another tremendous advantage of Gicleé printing is that digital images can be reproduced to almost any size and onto various media, giving the artist the ability to customize prints for a specific client.

The Quality : The quality of the Gicleé print rivals traditional silver-halide and gelatin printing processes and is commonly found in museums, art galleries, and photographic galleries.

The Market : Numerous examples of Gicleé prints can be found in New York City at the Metropolitan Museum , the Museum of Modern Art , and the Chelsea Galleries

Leslie Lee’s Gicleé prints are produced by Irelock Imaging in Medford Oregon on a Epson 10000, Piezo Print Technology. The paper is 100% cotton rag manufactured by Crane & Co. and the ink is Epson Archival 100% Pigment-Based resulting in an Archival Rating of 200+ years, and by Robert Jaffe using a similar process.

The artist has inspected the reproduction quality of each edition to make sure the look and feel of the prints carry the essence of the original work.

Each print is signed by the artist with an edition notation which indicates how many of any one image will be produced, in any size within the edition. This limitation ensures the value of the print will be protected. The artist does retain the right, however, to grant licensing rights for other uses of the image.