What Is a Giclee Print? Meaning and How to Sell (2026)

A giclee print is a reproduction of an original artwork, made on a professional-grade inkjet printer using pigment-based inks and archival paper or canvas. Collectors buy giclee prints when the original painting or photograph either isn’t for sale or is out of their price range. Giclee prints also allow artists and store owners to sell copies of a single piece of artwork to more than one buyer, at a lower price than the original. 

In 2025, online sales accounted for 16% of dealer turnover, and sales through a dealer’s own website made up 14% of total value. With this strategy, artists looking to sell reproductions of their own work can set up a dedicated online store instead of routing every sale through a gallery or marketplace.

This guide covers what a giclee print is, why artists choose to sell them, how to make a giclee print, plus tips for printing and selling your pieces.

What is a giclee print?

A giclee print (or “giclée print”) is a high-quality reproduction of an original artwork, made using an inkjet printer. The giclee printing process relies on digital technology to create reproductions of photographs, paintings, drawings, digital illustrations, and other types of fine art.

The word giclee comes from the French verb gicler, which means “to spurt” or “to spray,” and was coined around 1991 by printmaker Jack Duganne while he was at Nash Editions. He wanted a term for the new type of printing they were doing with a modified Iris printer. “He felt that if we just called it ’digital ink jet print,’ it would have absolutely no impact on the art world,” his colleague Mac Holbert said, “so he went home to his French dictionary.”

Giclee isn’t a regulated technical standard, meaning there’s no governing body who certifies what printer, ink, or paper qualifies a print as a giclee. The Image Permanence Institute at the Rochester Institute of Technology defines giclee as “a term often used for marketing fine-art or fine-art reproduction inkjet prints.” Because of this, quality can vary between artists or producers, based on their specific materials and process.

Giclee prints tend to be truer to original works than etchings, screenprints, lithographs, woodcuts, and other fine art prints. That’s because giclee printing relies on photographs or scans, rather than the less directly representational plates and stencils used in other forms of fine art printing.

They also come with longevity: Testing shows that fine art papers and canvases can achieve over 100 years of display life under typical framing conditions, and even up to 300 years in dark storage. That said, longevity depends on display conditions, and any print left in direct sunlight will fade quicker than one protected by UV filtering.

Giclee vs. art prints and standard prints

While giclee prints share inkjet technology with standard prints sold in a retail shop, as well as prints that come out of a home printer, there are a few key differences between the three.

What makes a print a giclee

Here are the elements that help a giclee print earn the label:

• Source file. A high-resolution scan or photograph of the original artwork is required in order to have enough detail to reproduce a high-quality replica that includes fine details, like brushwork or linework.
• Printer operator. Someone with color-calibration and proofing experience needs to manage the process, checking a print against the original before running the full order.
• Specialized printer. You’ll need a specialized printer to accommodate thick archival paper and a wide range of pigment inks.
• Special inks. You’ll need at least 10 archival-quality pigment ink colors to make a giclee print. Most regular inkjet printers have only four dye-based inks.
• Archival paper or canvas. A giclee print doesn’t fade or break down as quickly because it uses acid-free archival paper or canvas as its base. These high-quality papers are also dense, allowing them to hold high quantities of ink and showcase vivid colors.

Why do artists sell giclee prints?

Artists sell giclee prints to expand their customer base. An artist can only sell an original painting to one buyer, but they can sell giclee print reproductions of that painting to an unlimited number of buyers. 

Giclee prints also give artists a way to reach buyers who aren’t in the market for original artwork. Because giclee reproductions are less expensive than original artwork, artists can sell them to buyers who might not be able to afford an original piece.

How to make giclee prints

Giclee printing takes a digital file through several stages before you have a finished print that’s ready to sell. Each stage impacts how closely the print matches the original artwork and how long the print will last. 

1. Scan or photograph your artwork

You’ll need to start by digitizing your artwork, which you can do by photographing an original with a camera and copy stand, or by scanning it on a flatbed scanner. 

A flatbed scanner works well for flat, non-fragile pieces, like works on paper that fit the scanner bed. For paintings and other dimensional or textured pieces, the Library of Congress-led federal digitization guidelines list flatbed scanners under “Not Recommended Technologies,” as pressing a painting’s surface against the glass plate risks damage and doesn’t allow the device to capture texture properly. 

In that instance, photographing the artwork is your best bet, and given that getting a high-quality photo for reproduction can be technical, it’s often worth hiring a professional to get the right shot.

2. Upload your image

To secure a high-quality fine art print, you need to upload a high-resolution image. Your file resolution directly affects the sharpness and detail in your finished print, so make sure your image is at least 300 pixels per inch (PPI) to ensure the printer has enough data to reproduce fine details, like individual brushstrokes. A lower-resolution file can look soft or pixelated once enlarged, which can ruin your reproduction.

3. Digitally retouch your image

Cameras and scanners don’t always get everything right. You can use digital photo editing software, like Photoshop, to correct a patch of glare or a color shift before printing. Compare your screen to the original artwork under natural lighting, and use your printer’s ICC color profile for the specific paper you plan to use so the file’s colors translate accurately when printed.

Many print providers offer a proof, or a single test print you can review and approve before the full order runs. Reviewing a physical proof against the original is the most reliable way to catch a color issue before you print multiple copies.

4. Determine dimensions

Your chosen dimensions will determine how customers display your print and how much you charge, since larger prints use more ink and paper. In Shopify, each size print can be set up as a separate variant, giving each size its own inventory count. That way, you can track a numbered edition separately for each size you sell.

5. Pick your paper or canvas

The paper or canvas you choose affects how the finished print looks and feels. As you’re deciding between paper or canvas types, consider visiting a local art store to see different options in real life. Several material factors can impact the final reproduction, including:

• Substrate weight. Determines how sturdy the print feels in hand; a heavier paper resists curling and handles framing better.
• Surface texture. Ranges from smooth to heavily toothed papers, like watercolor stock, which can add visible grain to the print.
• Coating. Affects how much ink the surface absorbs and how vivid the colors appear.
• Whiteness. Affects how true the colors read against the paper itself.
• Finish. Determines how the final reproduction looks.

6. Send it to the printer

If you have an at-home printing setup, this is the time to test your file. Run one or two test prints, sometimes called trial proofs, to check color accuracy, paper choice, and cropping against your retouched file before you send the full order through.

Once you’ve confirmed your reference print matches what you want each physical copy to look like, lock that production file and stop editing it. This will help keep each print in the collection consistent.

7. Sign and mark your prints

Now that your giclee prints are complete, it’s time to sign them. If you have too many to sign by hand, consider purchasing a signature stamp. If you created a finite number of prints, you should mark them with fractions to keep track of them and let your buyers know they’re purchasing from a limited set. For example, marking a print as 12/50 denotes that it’s the 12th print in a collection of 50.

Some states regulate what sellers have to disclose about prints like these. California, for example, has specific disclosure requirements for certain fine-art multiples sold in the state. These requirements vary by state, so check what applies to where you and your buyers are located.

Note: This isn’t legal advice. Consult a lawyer familiar with art sales in your area before you finalize your labeling or documentation.

8. Store and care for your giclee prints

Heat, humidity, and airborne pollutants are the biggest threats to the quality of your giclee prints. Archival paper and pigment inks resist damage better than standard prints, but care, storage, and display also play a large role in how well your print holds up.

For prints in storage waiting to be sold, keep temperature and humidity stable, and store prints flat or in acid-free, lignin-free sleeves or boxes, rather than rolled. Rolling a print stresses its surface and can crack or delaminate its coating, according to storage guidance from the Image Permanence Institute. When packaging or moving prints, handle them by their edges using clean, dry hands, and keep them away from direct contact with PVC plastic sleeves, which can react with pigment inks over time.

When a buyer wants a print framed, use glazing, glass, or acrylic that blocks at least 97% of UV light, since ultraviolet exposure is the main cause of fading when a print is on display. Mount the print using acid-free materials, and skip pressure-sensitive adhesive tape directly on the print itself; the same guidance cited earlier found that some of these adhesives can cause visible yellowing within months. Finally, consider a window mat that keeps any glazing or glass from touching the print’s surface as extra protection.

The archival ratings that come with a giclee print assume conditions like these. If you’re storing prints in a hot attic or storage space or hanging them in direct sunlight, their lifespan won’t come close to those ratings.

Open vs. limited-edition giclee prints

Like gemstones or antiques, the value of a print depends on its rarity. You can decide how rare your print will be by printing more or fewer copies in a set, also called a print run.

Here’s a breakdown of the different types of prints, depending on quantity, and when you might want to create each.

Limited-edition prints

Limited-edition prints are part of a print run with a predetermined quantity. The UK’s Fine Art Trade Guild sets a maximum edition size of 1,950, but recommends keeping them below 850 worldwide. The quantity you choose is purely a marketing decision rather than a technical limit, but the smaller your set, the rarer they inherently are, and the more you typically can charge.

However, scarcity alone doesn’t determine value. Other factors include demand for the artist’s work and the quality of the print itself, as well as how many copies exist in the world.

Artists and printers mark these prints with the edition number and print run size. For example, if you make 50 limited-edition prints, you would mark the first print with 1/50 and the second with 2/50.

Open-edition prints

Open-edition prints are not part of a limited print run; instead, artists and printmakers can create an infinite number of prints. This theoretically unlimited supply means that open-edition prints are less expensive than limited-edition prints. However, price can also be impacted by demand, which means that edition size isn’t always a key factor.

You may decide to create open-edition prints if you want your work to be accessible to a wider audience, or if you want to meet a high demand for your work. Open-edition prints can also help you generate word-of-mouth marketing and foster brand awareness around your work. If more people own your work (and display it), then more people will see your work and potentially convert into customers.

Tips for printing and selling your giclee prints

Making and selling fine art giclee prints takes more than a good original and an inkjet printer. Here are a few tips for making and selling high-quality giclee prints.

Partner with a professional printer

Giclee printing requires specialized equipment and knowledge, and you likely won’t get the result you want on the first try. If you’re not interested in learning the specifics of giclee printmaking, you have three options for getting your prints made:

• Local print studio. You can compare a physical proof against your original in person, which is the most reliable way to match colors and confirm quality. Turnaround is often fast, but you’re limited to studios near you, which may end up costing more than other options.
• Mail-in printer with remote proofing. You send your file to a specialist printer and review a digital or shipped proof before they run the full order. This opens up more printer options, but you’ll have to factor in shipping costs and time.
• Print on demand. A print-on-demand service—like CreativeHub, which can sync with your Shopify storefront—prints and ships each order directly to your customer as it comes in, so you don’t have to hold onto inventory or handle production. While this removes upfront costs and storage logistics, it gives you less control over color matching and quality assurance than the other two options.

Whichever option you choose, you’ll want to properly vet all vendors involved by asking about their:

• Printer and ink setup
• The substrates they offer
• Their color management and proofing process
• Their operator’s experience reproducing paintings or photography specifically
• Turnaround times
• Fulfillment options, like whether they ship directly to your customer or to you first

Consider mounting and framing

Buyers often purchase prints unframed, but offering your work mounted and framed saves buyers from having to do it themselves and allows you to control how the finished product is displayed.

If you do choose to offer framing, avoid putting pressure-sensitive tape or adhesive directly against your print’s surface. Testing from the Image Permanence Institute found some of these adhesives can cause visible yellowing on inkjet prints within months of contact, even those that pass standard preservation testing. Use archival hinging methods instead, or partner with a local frame shop or online framing company that is experienced with fine art prints.

Hire art handlers and shippers

Packing, shipping, and logistics costs rose an estimated 10% for art dealers worldwide in 2025, the largest increase of any cost line dealers reported, and well above both the 5% average cost increase and the market’s 2% overall sales growth. Framed or oversized prints add to that cost, since they need rigid packaging, corner protection, and sometimes even custom crating to survive transit undamaged.

If you ship orders from the US and buy labels through Shopify, you can add shipping insurance through Shipsurance for up to $5,000 in coverage and file a claim directly from the Shopify admin if your shipment is lost, stolen, or damaged. For especially valuable or oversized pieces, a dedicated art shipping specialist can crate and insure work beyond what standard carriers offer.

Use art inventory software

Dedicated art tools, like Artlogic or ArtCloud, track your prints, editions, and buyers in one place. Many include built-in customer relationship management (CRM) features, so you can see a buyer’s purchase history and reach out to them again for future work.

Set the right price

Supply and demand rule the art market, but your price still needs to cover your production costs. As you create your pricing strategy, factor in your underlying materials (like your paper, canvas, and ink), labor costs, and desired profit margin. Larger canvas prints cost more to produce than smaller prints on paper, since they use more ink and material per copy.

From there, consider your market demand. An established artist with a large following typically can charge more than someone newer to the industry, regardless of production costs.

Set up an ecommerce site

Even established galleries sell art online. In 2025, online sales accounted for 16% of total dealer turnover among art dealers worldwide, and sales through a dealer’s own website or digital platform accounted for 14% of total value.

Setting up an ecommerce site with a platform like Shopify lets you keep full control over your sales process, and Shopify’s plans vary in price depending on the features your store needs. For each listing, disclose the details a buyer needs to evaluate a print without seeing it in person, including:

• Exact dimensions
• Paper or canvas type
• Edition size and print number (if it’s limited)
• Framed or unframed shipping

Some states have their own disclosure requirements for print editions, covered earlier in this guide.

Note: This isn’t legal advice. Consult a lawyer familiar with the rules that apply to your business.

Diversify your sales channels

Etsy remains one of the largest online marketplaces for handmade and art goods, with 5.6 million active sellers and 86.5 million active buyers as of Q4 2025. Listing prints on Etsy puts your work in front of buyers who are already shopping for art and handmade goods.

Selling at craft fairs and art shows, as well as consigning work to local boutiques and galleries, can reach buyers who prefer to see a print in person before buying. If you sell in person, Shopify POS syncs those sales with your online inventory, so a print sold at a fair updates your online stock count automatically.

You might also consider selling on social media platforms like Instagram. Beyond your own sales efforts, you can invite retailers to sell your products through Shopify Collective to reach a broader customer base.