Giclee Printing: A Revenue Source Let's face it: you spend a lot ot time and effort to create your art. Someone buys it and that's the end of the story: done, no more revenue. In addition, the art is only viewed in one place at the time. In the past it was a hard sell to convince an uncompromising artist to reproduce artwork to a lesser quality medium such as lithography (with all the limitations in color and paper type).
Giclee printing has changed the way art is sold and the quality expected by the most descerning buyers. Now collectors can have a limited edition giclee, even embellished by the artist, on canvas, watercolor etc.
Giclee printing is a very specialized field; although the equipment is not terribly expensive (a wide format giclee printer starts at around $5,000), the file preparation entailing image capturing and color correction is a complicated matter. It requires a deep understanding of gamut, secondary and primary color behavior. We see sign shops (which already own most of all the equipment required to produce giclees) jumping onto the fine art reproduction bandwagon with no personnel capable of making high quality, true to the original giclee printing. Do not be afraid to ask questions and do not settle for "close enough to the original" excuses. Although sometimes some original colors cannot be duplicated, very often it is possible to make the perfect print.  ¶ 8:42 AM