RE: [Leica] re: Digital Prints

["Tim Atherton" <timphoto@nt.sympatico.ca>]

> Tim or Tina -
> Forgive my lack of knowledge, but what is a Giclee printer? Is
> this a fancy
> name for inkjet?
>
> Thanks..
> B. D.

Yes - it is basically French for squirt!

It was coined by one of the early digital printers (don't recall who) when
they used exotic, high end, esoteric machines. But he didn't Trademark the
term so it became generic for these kind of inkjet printers.

Until recently, it was used for the Iris printers/prints and suchlike.
However, it is no becoming used as a more general term for inkjet prints.
Rather in the same was as you will often see "art" photography described as
gelatin Silver (good old B&W) or dye transfer (a good old Ilfochrome I
think) etc. -  fancy names for a fairly normal, if well crafted process.

Of course, with inkjet/giclee these can vary from simple Epson prints with
Epson inks on Epson papers, to prints (still using for e.g. Epsons, some of
which are quite "high end"), but using archival colour or Quadtone b&w inks
on various archival (watercolour or other) papers some with archival ratings
the same or better than Ilfochromes etc.

And yes, the Epson list gets more mail than the LUG.


Tim