Introduction, Methodology
Giclée and digital ink jet is little more than a decade old as a Fine Art print technology. The increasing number of applications made by artists in the last few years clearly demonstrates an impact on printmaking, photography and painting, resulting in an evolution of new ideas. As a consequence, there is a shift from the conventional techniques towards creation of concept-led digital art.

To be able to establish a discussion on the shift towards digital print, it was necessary to research whether this process has been accepted by leading museums and galleries. To witness such development, I made number of visits to leading galleries and museums in London exhibiting works using inkjet print technology. Based on the knowledge I gathered sets of questionnaires were prepared.

One type of questions were sent to selected artists, another set of questions to museums and galleries and a third set to printing studios and suppliers. Other sources responded, including authors, professors, lecturers and magazine editors, mainly in UK and USA, sending useful information and referring me to further supporting study materials. About two hundred and eighty letters and emails were sent during summer/autumn 2002, and around eighty of them responded. Without Internet and the World Wide Web I could not have done extensive research on this particular subject area.

Giclée and Digital Ink Jet
A Giclée or a Digital ink jet is a work of art created by the use of a computer and a high-quality digital inkjet printer. Images created on, or copied to, a computer, are sent as data information to an electronic printer. The printer software translates the data into electrical impulses that are fed through the printer heads, releasing tiny amounts of ink onto a variety of media, resulting in images with a rich and vibrant colour.

Background
Artists have been employing computers to generate and manipulate images since the early 1980's. Computers were used by several artists, among others Richard Hamilton, David Hockney and Sidney Nolan, who experimented with the 'Quantel Paintbox' for a 1987 BBC 2 TV series entitled Painting with Light. In 1998 Richard Hamilton wrote:

Commercial print companies saw an interesting market within the art segment. Entrepreneurial artists and print studios like Cone Editions, USA, were involved in the development, and the Iris printer was the first digital printer introduced for Fine Art, thereof the term 'Iris print'. Paul Jackson, being one of the first artists who employed Iris print technology states his reason:

The Iris printer was an answer to Hamilton's hard copy problem. The vibrant rich colours were appealing, but the dye-based ink of the Iris printer had no long-lasting, archival quality and therefore led to scepticism towards work of art produced by the digital process. In 1996 David Hockney wrote:

Dorothy Simpson Krause has the computer as her primary art-making tool, and she has used inkjet, thermal, laser, lightjet, dye sublimation and dot matrix printing techniques to take her images from the screen to a fixed form, and she states:

Digital Printing
A personal computer, either on an IBM compatible platform or an Apple Mac, including a monitor and a mouse or pencil is required in the digital printing process. Software applications like Adobe Photoshop or Corel Painter are used to work with the images, another set of software controls the printing process and the RIP (Raster Image Processor) is used to organise the images. The image input devices are a scanner, digital camera or a Photo-CD. Normally the user would also be connected to the Internet and the World Wide Web.

The scanned image can be digitally manipulated and in many cases the artist co-operates with the printmaker to crop, size, adjust or manipulate all or selective parts of an image. To ensure quality, the image resolution, measured in dots per inch (d.p.i.), needs to be considered, since it affects the system's ability to create fine details. File size is important when it comes to calculating how large the final print can be.

Before printing an image, the hardware devices need to be calibrated to ensure colour matching. When data is transferred between different hardware devices, software application and printers, colour change is inevitable since they use different colour ranges. The monitor uses RGB (Red, Green and Blue) as the primary colours and is an 'additive' system. Printers, however, use CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and blacK) that subtracts certain frequencies of light and reflects others. The conversion from RGB to CMYK is extremely difficult since CMYK has a smaller colour gamut. If the image is transferred from one platform to another, as when the artist is transferring the image to a print studio, the problem increases. There are software programs helping to reduce the colour management problem, but still manually evaluating and correcting proofs by the artist is crucial before accepting the BAT (Bon à Tirer) proof and printing the edition.

New Supports, New Color Considerations
Artists' choice of substrates depends on their idea and intention for the final output. Substrates that are commonly available are different types of papers e.g. photo-glossy, matte or many types of watercolour papers and different types of canvas. Paper and canvas can also be found coated and uncoated, and more or less waterproof. Other substrates available are vinyl, leather, film, banners, plastic and etched aluminium plates. However, not all substrates can be used with any kind of ink. The ink reacts to various coatings and chemicals. For example, dye-based ink works best on glossy and uncoated substrates, while pigment-based inks work best on coated substrates. Dye based inks have bright vivid colours, but are likely to fade and are not waterproof. Pigment based inks are less vivid, though rich and earthy, and are often more waterproof and more permanent.

The Iris printer, for example, can only use dye-based inks in contrast to the ColorSpan Displaymaker Mach 12, which can have both dye and pigment based inks. Today there are number of manufacturers like Epson, Hewlett Packard, Roland, Mimaki, and ColorSpan with Giclée print quality. They all have, however, their benefits and drawbacks, e.g. ColorSpan Mach 12 can have 12 different inks including the original 4 CMYK colours. Other printers have 6 or 8 colours, and some have 4 different variations of black. Different printers more or less have problems with banding (a horizontal path on the image), metamerism (when colours change relative to on another in different light sources) and continuous tone (smooth tonal transitions).

Achieving the Artist's Intentions
To achieve the artist's intentions it is crucial to understand the possibilities and limitations of substrates, inks and printers, not least how they all interact with each other. The interaction of these factors are even more important regarding the longevity of the prints with a ratio of 20:1, meaning that the difference in light fading between the longest lasting ink-substrate combination and the least stable combination is 20 years. Testing the combination of ink, substrate and printer using the 'Blue Wool Scale' method, accredited British Standard (BS1006) and adopted as International Standard (ISO), the Fine Art Trade Guild reports that the latest test results show life expectancy rates of 100 to 200 years for some Giclée prints. When printed on good quality heavyweight art paper the print should possess archival standards of permanence or better than other collectable artwork. Protecting the print from UV-light, humidity and acid-free materials helps to preserve the print. However, artwork deteriorates over time. When questioned if Tate Modern experienced any problems with colour fading or effects of moisture and temperature, they replied:

Conservation plays an important role in preserving digital prints. The Museum of Modern Art, NY, explains that:

Terminology
The word Giclée (pronounced 'zhee-clay') was coined in 1991 by Jack Duganne, then working at Nash Editions. The word is derived from the French word 'gicleur' meaning 'nozzle' and 'gicler' which is the verb 'to spray', meaning spraying nozzle or the spraying of ink. The main intention was to distinguish fine art prints form those created for commercial purposes, very much the same reason as 'serigraph' was coined earlier. Today different terminology is used to address work printed by digital technology. In the Summer Exhibition 2002, at the Royal Academy of Art, Jennifer Dickson used the term 'Giclée print' on her Petal Screen, "Milton Lodge." However, using the same technology, William Alsop , "Goldsmiths Two," and Edward Cullinan , "Plan of Turner Gallery, Margate," both used the term 'Digital print'.

Dorothy Simpson Krause defines Giclée as "reproductions of work done originally in another medium. I make inkjet prints of original digital art," she adds.

Mr. Maklansky, assistant director at New Orleans Museum of Modern Art urges that the term "Giclée" should not be used, and Stephen Goddard informs us that "the curatorial world is likely to use the term 'inkjet print."

Nash Editions states that:

To have a consistent terminology I suggest that the term 'Giclée' should be applied to reproductions of artwork originally created by the use of another medium, and 'Digital ink jet' for artworks intended for, and finally created by the use of a computer and digital print technology.

Reproductions or Originals, the Possibilities are Great
Giclée and digital ink jet is a high quality inkjet print technology that requires the use of a computer, and demands new skills and knowledge on the part of artists and print studios. The process is less labour intensive than traditional techniques allowing more time for the artist to be creative, and make images that are as visually and aesthetically stunning as those produced by any other medium.

The quality of the final print depends on the artist's ability to combine the interactive elements where the final result is a combination of the original file or scan, printing machine, ink, substrate and protective top-coat. There are multiple combinations that give good results, but also many that do not work. To get the best results, one must experiment and test many combinations. A failure in any one area will cause the final product to likewise fail. The Fine Art Trade Guild confirms archival standard when using the right combination.

The impact of Giclée

Printmaking, Extending the "Kitchen"
For artists willing to experiment outside traditional printmaking techniques, digital printmaking is another possibility for creative expression. As a relatively new printmaking process it's still very exciting in terms of experimentation.

Printmaking has always been closely linked to technological development, since it is between the hand-made and mechanical reproduction, between the creative and the technical process, between art for its own sake and commercial possibilities. With digital printmaking the link to technology has become even stronger. Professional printmaking studios like Cone Editions Press and Nash Editions have collaborated with internationally-known artists like Robert Rauschenberg, Jim Dine and Helena Chappelin Wilson. The artist's physical presence at the print studio is, however, no longer required since it is now possible to e-mail the image, discuss with the printmaker using Internet and post the proofs to be evaluated and approved.

The emerging practices in digital print technology are leading to a 'synthesis' of art, making it possible to incorporate a painting, drawing or photography into a print and allowing for further manipulation. The cultural shift this represents may blur, remove, or even reinforce boundaries commonly associated with the activity of printmaking. Digital printmaking offers the possibility of generating radically new physical, aesthetic and conceptual frameworks and process routes within printmaking.

The Printmakers Hand vs. His or Her Brain
It can be argued that the appeal of the traditional prints is partly based on the techniques themselves, and with digital technology there are no physical objects manipulated by the actual hand of the artist or printmaker. According to this argument a Giclée or digital ink jet cannot therefore be called a 'fine art print'. The definition of 'original' print, as defined in the 1960's, also emphasis the importance of the manual involvement in making the print. Digital technology however, does not only give exciting new possibilities, but it is also less labour intensive then traditional techniques, giving the artist more time for creative work. I would therefore argue that digital technology allows for a transfer, 'from the artist's hand to the artist's mind', and that it is the artist's vision and quality of the art work that would define it as fine art.

Part II of III