Digital BW, The Print

During my wet print years I trimmed and dry-mounted on 4-ply matt
board, signed just under the bottom of the print, and made the window
matt bigger than the print so the signature could show.  This is
usually called a floating matt or floating mount, or something like
that.  It looks real nice but requires a lot of precision and is
tedious and very time consuming.

My mentor at the time said this method is preferred by galleries and
collectors because it shows the entire print, assures that the image
hasn't been cropped by the matt, and no "sins" can be covered up (such
as torn edges, etc).  It also allows precisely measuring the print
dimensions.  

I know that dry-mounting has since fallen out of favor, so I don't
know what emulsion print folks are doing these days.  For my taste,
seeing wavy prints under a matt looks terrible.

Now with carbon ink prints, the paper stays flat and dry mounting
isn't necessary.  I leave a sizeable paper border around the image,
sign just under the bottom edge of the image as before, and still make
the window matt larger.  This gives a nearly identical appearance as
before - very nice looking - with all of the above criteria being
met.  

I attach the print to the back of the matt with linen tape, which not
only prevents it from shifting position, but eliminates the need for
the 2nd piece of mattboard.  The matt/print is then top-hinged with
linen tape to acid free foam core backing.

Because it's not dry-mounted, and the border with signature could be
trimmed off, I'm also signing on the back of the print in the image
area.  The signing is done very lightly with a #2 pencil.

Bottom line - matting is now quicker, easier, less expensive. 
Hooray!

Anybody interested in a Bogen model 510 dry mount press? :)


Regards,
Clayton


Info on black and white digital printing at    
http://www.cjcom.net/digiprnarts.htm