Note: lucillesimonetti.com is now producing prints using the new Epson archival printing system which rivals Iris prints in both quality and longevity.
How Iris Giclée Technology Works
The Iris 3047 outputs near continuous tone images with a perceived resolution
of 1840 dpi on virtually any surface up to 35" x 47". The printer
sprays (giclée means to spray in French) cyan, magenta, yellow and
black water-based ink through four nozzles at the rate of four million droplets
of ink per second on paper or other material attached to a rotating drum.
The list of artists using Iris Giclée technology is diverse. It includes
artists who have always pioneered in the use of new printing technologies
like Robert Rauschenburg, who produced Iris prints for his Guggenheim New
York show in 1997, artists associated with painting such as Chuck Close, traditional
printmakers like Vija Celmins, and photographers including William Wegman,
Harry Callahan, Joel Meyerowitz, and Lee Friedlander. The attraction of a
new medium that permits experimentation in the digital realm without compromising
the quality of the resulting print is a powerful draw for artists of our time.
Iris Giclée prints are digital prints created from electronic files utilizing the Iris 3074G ink-jet printer. This printer outputs near continuous tone images with a perceived resolution of 1840 dpi on virtually any substrate up to 35" x 47". The printer sprays (giclée means to spray in French) cyan, magenta, yellow and black water-based ink through four nozzles at the rate of one million droplets of ink per second on paper or other material attached to a rotating drum. The droplets, which are no bigger than a red blood cell, are sprayed in a precisely controlled manner to form different colored dots of varying sizes.
The ink set used by an Iris 3047 determines both the color gamut, or color range, of which the printer is capable, and the permanency or longevity of the resulting image. The ink set used is Iris Graphics Equipoise which combines a broad color range with stability.
