Digital BW, The Print

I thought this was worthy of it's own thread.  Sandy King, a very accomplished carbon transfer printer, among other things, said the following to me about coating an inkjet print with gelatin:

"Peter,

One of the problems with gelatin solutions is that a large number of bubbles are created as you spread it on a paper. One way to get around this is to first spread the gelatin solution on the print, and then use a threaded coating rod, heated to 150F-170F, and roll it over the coating. The rod will push bubbles and debris to the side, leaving you with a perfectly even surface.

I would suggest a gelatin solution of about 5%, and a formed rod that will leave a wet height coating of about .2 mm. Check out RD Specialities for formed coating rods.

I use a very similar technique for sizing art papers for carbon transfer printing, the only difference is that I use a RD-200 rod that leaves a wet height coating of about .45 mm, and a 7% sizing solution.

The idea of gelatin over the inkjet papers seems nicer, and safer, than other poly type coatings, which may be easier to apply but you can not be as sure as to their long term stability, whereas gelatin is for the ages."