Black Mountain Gallery contemporary art by Mark Lloyd Williams & Muriel Williams

what is a giclee print ? "giclee" is an extremely high resolution computer-run printing technique used for "top-end" quality artwork reproduction. Its advantages over cheaper print processes are incredible sharpness of detail, super-vivid colours and no tiny dots visible in the image. It also is capable of printing on high quality materials like mould-made or hand-made paper or even canvas. It's currently the best system there is for reproducing existing artwork such as oil or watercolour paintings. Giclee prints are exceptionally fade-resistant. In average lighting conditions, they have a life of many decades. Scientifically estimated to be around 75-200 years before they fade noticeably, depending on room brightness.

Below are a couple of highly magnified areas from a giclee print and an offset-litho print for comparison. Offset litho is an older process used to create cheaper, but lower quality prints, such as posters or magazines. Most prints of artwork on sale in commercial galleries are made with the offset litho process. (please note the resolution of the actual paper print is drastically greater than these screenshots.)

HOW DOES IT WORK ? it's giant-format digital inkjet printing at extremely high precision, using specialised equipment and museum-grade inks and papers. A print head containing microscopic spray-nozzles passes over the paper again and again, spraying it with ink slowly building up the image after several hundred passes. It may take an hour or more to produce a single print in this way. The word "giclee" - pronounced "JEECLAY" was invented a few years ago by the marketing bods at one of the publishing companies for their top-end fine art prints. It's derived from the French word for spray (as in ink-jet). The name has caught on throughout the printing, publishing and art gallery trades as a slang term for "bloody good quality" because it's less of a mouthful than "high quality digitally mastered inkjet reproduction made using archival pigment-based ink and acid-free conservation grade paper"

ARE GICLEE PRINTS "ORIGINAL WORKS OF ART" or "ORIGINAL PRINTS"? No, they're not. They are very good copies of an existing work of art. So good, they can be virtually indistinguishable from the original. They offer the art lover access to the best possible copy of a work of art ,at an affordable price, which in its original form may be completely unobtainable. We pride ourselves in offering the best quality giclee prints available - We're happy to send out free postcard-sized samples (just ask) or to invite you to pop in to our studios and see how good our work is in the flesh.

HAZY SUN © mark lloyd williams 1998. 12-colour Silkscreen on 350gsm paper. Example only, edition sold out in 1999.

SO WHAT IS AN "ORIGINAL PRINT", WHY'S IT SO EXPENSIVE ? You'll see the term "original print" term regularly in the more up-market galleries. They're usually far more expensive than giclee prints. So what exactly makes a print "original" ? It's a hand-made print that's not a copy of an existing artwork.

There are many processes used for original prints. Engraving and etching are two quite similar examples: A design is made by engraving with a chisel or using acid to burn (etch) an image onto a metal plate, which is then inked and pressed hard into damp paper. The paper is then peeled off the printing plate, and you'll see the design has become "stamped" into the paper. Engraving and etching offer a wonderful subtlety and crispness unmatched by any modern process.

Silk screen printing is another original print-making process. Here, a stencil is attached to a tightly stretched fabric mesh (in the old days, it really was silk, but now it's ultra-tough nylon) The mesh is inked, and pressed onto a sheet of paper. The print is a "negative" of the stencil. Silk-screen is fantastic for big, bold designs.

These are labour-intensive processes carried out by hand, requiring a great deal of skill and even muscle power. Original prints are therefore far more exclusive and expensive: you're paying for the artist's blood sweat and tears, which don't come cheap.

There are dozens of original print-making processes, each produces work with a characteristic style and "feel"

We have not produced original prints here for several years, but a shift in the way we do things means that resuming in Spring 2010 we'll be making silk screen prints and etchings again, in addition to reproductions of our paintings using the giclee system.

IS AN ORIGINAL PRINT "BETTER" THAN A GICLEE PRINT ? No, not at all. They are two completely different things which it's not fair to compare. A bit like chilli and chocolate - both are very good in their way, but do very different things. There is a small number of self-styled "traditional artists" that seem to hang out on the internet spitting venom at virtually any form of artwork reproduction, giclee prints in particular, and even the artists making them. We're read some deeply spiteful comments describing artists who use the giclee process as "con men" and their customers as "bewildered fools" If this really does originate from anyone with any real connection to the Art Trade (something I find unlikely - spitting poison at fellow artists or potential customers is not exactly a recipe for success) then I suspect it's nothing more than envy masquerading as a rather unpleasant sort of snobbery. Rubbishing the work of others like that is generally seen as the sign of the Failed Artist - Most professional artists happily use reproduction printing and "original" printing side-by-side.