What is an Iris Print?

An Iris print is a high non-compromising quality fine art print that is created by using an Iris printer. These printers were originally used to print color proofs for offset lithographers “The Iris ink density and tonal range is unsurpassed by any other digital printer,” says Trillium Press in Brisbane, California. Amazingly, this printer produces 3 picolitre drops of ink that are as small as a red blood cell (drops range from 3 picolitres – 93 picoltres). It is the only printer that can print continuous tone fine art prints as well as photographs via Iris’s patented continuous drop ink jet technology, which can spray 1,000,000 drops of ink per second, which is like a rare, but heavenly drive in the fast lane at 90 miles an hour.

As a newly emerging American artist who values quality over planned obsolescence, I want to give my customers the best digitally created fine art prints possible, which is why I chose an Iris printer for my printing needs.

What is a Giclee?

The word “giclee” was created by Jack Duganne in Santa Monica, California in 1991, when an artist asked what her digitally created fine art prints should be called. Since most terms in the print business are of French or Italian origin, Duganne, a master fine-art printmaker (who speaks French), came up with the French word for nozzle, or “gicleur” and then “giclee,” meaning, “that which is sprayed by a nozzle.” The artist, who had to ask, loved the new term and used it in her promotional materials. The word “giclee” spread from there, especially in the United States and Japan. Giclee isn’t widely used in Europe and maybe that’s because it is a French slang word meaning “to ejaculate or to spray.” Lovely.