Giclée Prints Open New Markets for Artists

If you are a successful artist, there is a huge untapped market that can't afford your original artwork. Collectors, galleries, and museums have the resources to buy original works but for a broad cross-section of the art consuming public, reproductions are how they bring art into their lives. With a fine art Giclée print, they can finally own your work at a price that makes sense for them. Of course, they know it is a reproduction but it is beautiful with vibrant color and texture that makes it a perfect alternative for them. They are pleased and so are you.

Advantages of Giclée Reproductions

Quality: The quality of the Giclée print rivals traditional silver-halide and gelatin printing processes and is commonly found in museums, art galleries, and photographic galleries. Producing a Giclée print is a slow and meticulous process which requires the skill of an artist to create museum quality prints.

Print-on-Demand: Before Giclée prints, most reproductions were produced using lithography or as serigraphs. The setup costs were prohibitive and you had to print all the prints up front. So now you have a big inventory that often sits in a corner for years. Giclée prints are advantageous to artists who do not find it feasible to mass produce their work, but want to reproduce their art as needed, or on-demand. Once an image is digitally archived, additional reproductions can be made with minimal effort and reasonable cost. The prohibitive up-front cost of mass production for an edition is eliminated. Archived files will not deteriorate in quality as negatives and film inherently do.

Now you can order what you think you can sell in the short term and replenish as the art is sold. This frees working capital to invest in more images to reach more art collectors. Another tremendous advantage of Giclée printing is that digital images can be reproduced to almost any size and onto various media, giving the artist the ability to customize prints for a specific client. 

Longevity: One important element that distinguishes Giclées from other print methods is the attention to archival materials and practices. Today's Giclée prints can be created using pigmented inks and acid free 100% cotton papers that combine for a stable lifetime of 75 years or more.

Getting Started

Select a couple of your most popular images and turn those into giclée editions to test the market. Determine the size of the edition and have two to five printed. With Giclée printing, you can increase your profits without a huge investment. Since you can order prints on demand, you minimize your investment risk. Demand for your most popular work is satisfied and less popular work isn't killing you.

Designate one print as your display copy and make sure to protect it from handling damage. You can keep it loose in a protective sleeve or frame it for added protection. Just like any artwork, quality framing can enhance the appeal of your prints and will make them more valuable. When your stock is down to two print it is time to order more prints.

The First Print Pays For the Rest

The first print always has extra costs for scanning and/or proofing. Generally you should be able to sell the first print for enough to recoup your initial expenses and every print after that is mostly profit.

Example: You want to reproduce a pastel at 16"x20". A camera scan of the original is $50 and proofing is an additional $50 which includes setup, corrections, and two proof prints. The first print is $33 and shipping is about $12 so the total cost for the first print is $145. You should be able to sell the Giclée print for at least $150. The projected sales price minimum of $150 assumes there is an established market of $300 to $450 for your original. The sale of the first print should recover most if not all of your one-time expenses! The cost to you for the next print is just $33 plus shipping because we have your digital master stored in our system ready to go.

You should only order what you can sell in the short term but you should always have at least two prints on hand so you have one to show to clients and one to sell. Plus order a minimum of two prints at a time qualifies you for discount print pricing.