Digital BW, The Print

Nick et all; (I also changed the subject line, that was a good suggestion)
 
From the couple of replies to my message that I reviewed, it depends on what your purpose of the spraying is. We used the spraying to protect the artwork (e.g. fixative spray over charcol or graphic drawings that locked the artwork onto the medium and prevented smugging). That would be the same purpose that I would spray a digital print. The spray coating would also protect the ink/pigment from atmospherice gasses and relative humidity that can also degrade the image over time.
 
As to the "spray on glop" (not sure what glop is), but I can tell you that you have to be careful of how you stack the spay layers on top of the image. Old rule of thumb, you can paint oil on a watercolor painting, but you can't paint watercolor onto an oil painting. Likewise, we only provided one spray coating, you just need to determine at what stage the artwork is and chose the right spray to apply. I don't think that I would spray anything over an already coated artwork, e.g. spray on glob.
 
We did not ever coat a print to help with fingerprints, if we thought that the artwork was going to potentially get touched and that would be detrimental to the print, then we would add a matte and glass (also called "glazing", see below)
 
You should never spray to protect from the glazing (nice catch, most would just glass, but then you would miss the plexi or other clear protective interface for the artwork). To protect from the from the glazing, you would use a (archival, rag) matte that provide separation between the artwork and the glazing in the picture frame. Glass contacting artwork has issues with the sodium that can leach out of the glass or bonding to the photograph, and their are other issues with each type of glazing and artwork. If you have ever tried to pry an old photograph (silver print) off a sheet of glass that maybe your grandmother had framed, you will know the consequences of having glazing directly contact prints. (if you do have to have direct contact, then use non-glare glass with the treated side contacting the print)
 
There are numerous pros & cons for glazing; and there are a lot of choices. For long term display, I would make sure that it was a UV glazing to protect from UV light, and to furhter protect the art from accidental damage if dropped, that additiona investment into UV plexi. UV is not good for almost any artwork.
 
Best regards,

"Nick H. Nugent" <nghin@...> wrote:

Hi Douglas,

Might it be that the purpose of your coating is to create a fine
layer of separation between the print surface and the glazing? If so 
I'm afraid that is not exactly what most inkjet coaters are trying to 
do. I think they want a coating that is not quite like liquid
lamination but gives additional strength to the otherwise fragile 
inkjet media.

...

Yes, you might be spraying too far from the print surface. It takes 
some practice to get consistent results. Get in closer and move
across a little more slowly but not so slow that you may get streaks. 
Just practice alot and you'll get really good at it.

--nick


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