Digital BW, The Print

On 12/14/02 3:43 PM, "Roger L Sopher" <rlsopher@...> wrote:

> Hi Robert,
> 
> I think you missed my point. Acrylic paints are somewhat a different kettle of
> fish than coating a sheet of what is appreciably watercolor paper with a
> sealer of some ilk. My wife is a professional artist and paints with all media
> including acrylics so I am reasonable familiar with them and their properties.
> (I would like a buck for every canvas I have stretched for her or worse every
> egg tempera panel I have made.)

Acrylics are made to be used on watercolor paper.  I am aware of the basic
chemistry in the ink receptive layers on these matte papers and there is
nothing that will be incompatible with acrylic emulsion polymers.

 
> I think the unknown is the effect of encapsulating (for want of a more precise
> term) an ink & paper product with some form of polymeric plastic. The liquid
> material is going to penetrate, to some degree depending on a host of factors
> into the paper and the possibility of some interaction is, I think, real. With
> carbon based inks it is probably minimal but...

The technology of overprinting inks/paint is not new...and neither are most
of the polymers being used in these coatings...it dates back into the 50's
(Hydrocote is an exception here)...so we have a very good idea of what will
happen.  In fact these acrylic polymers are frequently used in exterior
house paint...a rather demanding application.
 
> 
> It may well be that newer materials will not have those problems and coated
> prints will last for hundreds of years. At this point do we really know? As
> long as coating doesn't decrease the life of a print this is a non-issue. If
> it is neutral and produces a pleasing effect then it is a plus. If it
> decreases print life then it is something that has to be factored into its
> use. Caveat Pictor, if you will.
> 
The only thing that I'm pretty sure of is that the inkjet inks themselves
will probably not last for hundred's of years.  All projective testing is a
crape shoot at this point.  The important thing is that we do relative
testing...testing coated vs. uncoated prints in faders and windows.  That's
the best that we can do at this point...and several of us are working on
that.  I have a very large test that will be going into a window in a couple
of days...so we should have some idea where things stand in the next couple
of months.  I did another large fade test about a year ago.  This involved
many different types of polymers and vehicles.  The basic results showed a
dramatic improvement in lightfastness for coated Sundance PiezoBW ink with a
variety of different coatings.  We have made major strides in the last year
in finding products and coating techniques that make the coating much
easier...now we'll see if they protect as well as what I was doing a year
ago.

Robert


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Robert Morrison [mailto:rmorrison@...]
> Sent: Saturday, December 14, 2002 4:08 PM
> To: DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: Re: [Digital BW] Re: hot dry mounting - possible ?
> 
> 
> On 12/14/02 2:49 PM, "Roger L Sopher" <rlsopher@...> wrote:
> 
>> I would agree with Robert that if one is  worried about "archival" properties
>> then you would want to be able to remove the print from the mat without
>> taking
>> a strong chance of damaging it. On the other hand the "archival" properties
>> of
>> the various coating materials are yet to be proved as well as potential
>> chemical interactions with the pigments, ink receptor coating and paper base.
> 
> I can't speak for Hydrocote...because it is a completely unknown quantity in
> the museum realm, but if you go for the acrylic route these are already
> accepted in museums in the form of acrylic artist's paintings.  The carbon
> black in our ink sets aren't appreciably different than artist's painting
> pigments...so you don't have to worry about an acrylic interacting with the
> pigment based ink sets.  Now dye ink sets may be a whole different story,
> but I don't think that anyone trying to make archival digital prints at this
> point is actually using dyes.
> 
> Robert
> 
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