All printing is done with dots. Dots are how many colors are produced from the four 'process' colors (CMYK). If the dots are fine enough your eyes can't see them. For example, stand back from your computer monitor and look at the picture above and the eye will appear more distinct.
Conventional printing dots have hard edges, variable sizes and are arranged on a grid, like a checkerboard. For example, look at the top row of dots in the picture below. This arrangement leaves a lot of 'white space' between the dots, while the dots themselves are quite large (compared to giclée 'dots').
Conventional printing dots are 'stamped' onto paper or other substrates, like a rubber stamp. That is, the ink is transferred during a physical contact between the substrate and the printing plate. The physicality of this transfer puts limits on how small the dots can be. If you use a pin to print a dot it will puncture the paper.
However giclée 'dots' are sprayed (see second row of dots in the picture above). By spraying the dots the giclée process accomplishes three advantages:
First, one dot is replaced by (up to) 2880 microdots (the spray pattern). Such tiny microdots facilitate the printing of very fine details.
Second, the 'white space' between dots is filled with color. which means much better color saturation overall because white dillutes colors making them less pure. The white space around conventional dots acts like 'white dots' which reduces color saturation.
Third, where the sprayed dots overlap additional color tones are generated which are blends of all the overlapping hues. It is these 'rare tones' that add the tonal richness that giclée prints are famous for.
That's the large and the small of what makes giclée the finest printing method and the one preferred for fine arts and superior graphics.
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