Digital BW, The Print

This discussion makes me want to go back to Arches un-coated Hot Press as my standard "fine art" display medium.

I think with our best pigments the paper is going to be the weak link.  I'm suspicious of any coating or laminate, but Photo Rag has always seemed to be about the most fragile coating at least with respect to being touched.

I've never made a print as large as the one that is being discussed here, but what I've noticed with the 2 by 4 foot panoramas and even some of my 22x28 Arches (140 lb. or about 300 gsm, I believe) prints is that when I hang them with "T" type tape mounts I can sometimes "see" the attachment points in the sense that the paper wants to buckle or sag around those points.  It makes me wonder if larger borders and thicker paper might be needed for these large prints.  I would not want to have the tape behind the actual image area, but there is probably no way to have the floating type of presentation with the mounting I tend to do and favor.

One reason for my plans to set my 7800 up with "dual quad" that includes not only the Eboni-6 inks (4 of them) but also the HP Z3100/3200 PK based inkset is to explore an un-glazed, borderless, "floating" type of display in a shadow box.  I've seen some that look great.  However, all of my older un-glazed display prints, even when sprayed with a protective coating, show signs of damage, usually small scratches or the like, possibly from people trying to clean off dust, finger prints and the like.  Between such damage due to not being under glass/acrylic and the glossy laminates, I don't think this type of display can be considered "archival," and I'm not having second thoughts about the entire approach.

Again, if I were a collector I think I'd want 100% carbon on Arches.  For this tiny minority of (my) purchasers, long term preservation of the image is probably one of the goals and assumptions.  With the vast majority of the prints I sell, the buyers never think of this.  But even with these, it's going to be a real embarrassment if the large prints start to fall apart.  

(Anyone know how to get a 1.7 dmax on Arches -- with 100% carbon???)

Paul
www.PaulRoark.com