(1) Images conceived and created entirely on a computer that exist only as digital files until they're printed out. So if you decide to make and sell digital prints of your art, being clear and direct about what you're selling and how it's priced is an important part of making the whole process work.ĭigital, inkjet or giclee prints can be divided into five basic categories:
Or when they do buy and what they get turns out to be something other than what they thought it was, or worse yet, what it was represented as- that can be problematic as well. When potential buyers get confused or don't understand what they're looking at, especially if it's priced more expensively than less, they tend not to buy. (Note: the same basic tenets hold true for digital images produced by photographic methods like C-prints or chromogenic prints). In addition, digital prints are not all that well understood by your average everyday art buyer, so in the interest of clarity, perhaps a few guidelines and ground rules are in order.Įven though the terms giclee, digital print, and inkjet print all mean the same thing and can be used interchangeably (and will be in this article), artists, publishers and galleries currently represent digital art in so many different ways that unless you know your terminology, printing processes, and what questions to ask, figuring out what you're looking at can be confusing. Giclee prints, also known as inkjet or digital prints, offer artists boatloads of new ways to make and sell art at reasonable prices, but seeing as digital printmaking hasn't been around all that long, the evolution of the medium is still in progress, and the market for giclee limited edition prints and other forms of digital art is still relatively disorganized.