Giclée (pronounced Jee Clay) is derived from the French for "little squirt". Put simply, a giclée print is one produced on a digital inkjet printer controlled by a computer, onto specially coated fine art paper. Although there are a number of printer manufacturers - Iris being the first and most famous - Epson, with their latest range, have transformed the marketplace.

It is a well-known fact within the trade - but hotly denied in public - that Epson make the heads, mechanisms and particularly the inks for a number of other well-known names. Epson's latest wide-body printers, the 9600 and the 10000CF, are unique to them however, since they use professional long-lasting archive quality pigment inks through laser-controlled print heads (10000CF).

It is vitally important to have the right type and quality of paper to print onto. We use Hahnemühle fine art coated papers, particularly German Etching, Durer, Torchon and Turner. All mould-made papers specially prepared for digital inkjets, they have different patterned finishes and thickness which suit different types of work.

A high-quality scan or digital photograph of the original is stored on our Apple Mac G4 systems, and can be checked and adjusted to suit. Essentially, the artist is able to "update" and review the original. Once the image is finalised and saved, all the prints produced from it will be exactly the same, even if they are produced at different times.

This means that, in contrast to a litho limited-edition, which has to be produced all at one go with a large print run, and onto a good - but not usually an "art" - paper, giclée allows for small numbers of prints - only one, if that's what is required - to be run off on demand, saving the artist time and money and avoiding large numbers of wasted, unsold prints.

This comment by the David Shepherd Conservation Foundation on our recent work for them sums up proper giclée work: - "Advances in technology have meant this giclée print bears a remarkable resemblance to the original painting - it's quite unbelievable, you actually cannot tell it apart from the real thing."