Should I purchase a lithograph or a giclee?

We sell both. Nonetheless, purchase the image, not the medium.

What is the difference? The ink on a lithograph is pressed into the paper through the rollers of a press.  The ink on a giclee is sprayed onto the paper, much like your desktop printer.  While the processes are different, both mediums can result in stunning reproductions.  However, both can also result in unimpressive results.

Today, most printing of Audubon prints is through the giclee process.  The reason is not that this necessarily produces a better print, but that the overall costs are less for the publisher. This explains the growing number of Audubon editions, as giclees are produced on demand, or as needed, which eliminates the substantial cost of maintaining an inventory. Today, an Audubon publisher does not have to be a printer, he just needs to have a printer. Thus, choose your editions carefully.

Here are some additional factors to consider.  Many publishers claim correctly that their giclees have more dots per inch (dpi) of ink, thinking that this automatically makes a better product.  This is much like camera manufacturers stating that their product has more megapixles.  Once you get to ‘mega’ there is the problem of overkill.  And we have found most of today’s giclee editions are oversaturated with ink.  This results in a blurring, or a lack of definition and sharpness.  We have also found that most giclee editions have gone through Photoshop adjustments numerous times, which can result in the final product being unlike the original it was supposed to reproduce.

The most important factor is what is called image capture.  How good was the image that was sent to either the press or the printer?  Princeton purchased the actual originals and photographed them with a huge camera which had giant film the same size as the print.  This resulted in a one to one capture of detail, and this detail was sent to the press.  No other lithograph can match a Princeton due to the image capture. The capacity of film unmatched.

Some giclees are very good.  Some are not. Again the question is how was the image captured? Was it a one to one capture, such as you obtain from a flat scanner?  Or was one small photograph scanned into the computer?  Today, depending on the setting of the scanner, the best giclees are produced from whole print scans, or from a series of photographs which are electronically stitched together.

A good giclee edition which was produced from a one to one capture, and is not oversaturated with ink, can approach the quality of a direct-camera Princeton.  We sell only one giclee edition on our website.

If you are purchasing Audubon prints as an investment, it is our opinion that no giclee edition will appreciate in value.

Purchase the image, not the medium.