Digital BW, The Print

This message is cross posted at the PiezoBW and Digital BW lists.

As many of you know I'm trying to develop a commercially available coating
system that would be applied after printing to ink jet prints on fine art
paper (not gloss or satin papers)...particularly for pigment inks (Epson
2000P/7500/10000, Piezo BW and Color and MIS).  The system consists of two
parts...a sealer and then a top coat.  Both parts are water-based.  My
previous tests showed prints with outstanding depth and dimensionality (like
an glazed oil painting) with a 100% improvement in lighfastness as measure
by dmax after a 6 week full LA sun fade.

I believe that the following comments will apply to those of you who are
doing your own post-printing coating experiments.

I just completed tests on the following print/paper combinations:

Hahnemuhle PhotoRag 309g, PiezoBW, Orwell Profile (Royal Renissance)

Museo 355g, PiezoBW, Orwell Profile

Eclipse Velvet 350g, PiezoBW, Orwell Profile

Eclipse Velvet 350g, PiezoBW inks with Epson Driver and bumped up blacks

I also tested all of these papers with Color Piezo using the Epson Driver
and the Orwell profile supplied by Cone.

Notes:

Application methods--many have expressed hesitance in coating because of the
time that it would take.  To try to minimize this I tried a 7" roller from
Home Depot.  The roller cover has a 1/4" nap.  The roller was $2 and the
covers were 10 for $10 (cheap! compared to a $30 varnish brush).  I used a
plastic tray made for these rollers ($1.50) which cleaned out easily.  I
began by pre-wetting the roller pad and then using my hand to squeeze out
excess water.  The seal coat went down very easily.   The top coat had some
bubbles that disappeared within 30 seconds.  I work on a 2 x 4 ft piece of
laminate for easy clean up.

I coated 20 5x7 prints in about 3 minutes.  I used a hair dryer on cool to
briefly dry the prints (about 5 minutes of effort). I waited 5-10 minutes
for the seal coat to dry and then applied another coat (about 3 minutes).  I
then repeated the procedure with the hair dryer and applied 2 coats of the
top coat.  It took about an hour beginning to end with my actually doing
something for about 30 minutes.  The prints were completely dry about 4
hours later.  I would recommend allowing the sealer to dry longer in the
future...but this would just be a wait...no additional working time.  The
hair dryer is handy if bubbles appear because of the roller.


Papers:

As I've mentioned in the past, the best papers to coat are heavy ones.  You
can get acceptable results on lighter papers but they wrinkle more during
application and so you have to pay more attention to drips and runs.  The
papers tested are ideal for coating because of their weight.  I'm also
looking forward to testing Somerset Enhanced 330g when a sample arrives.

All papers coated easily.  Hahemuhle papers tend to take more coating...so
while I applied 2 coats of sealer and 2 coats of top coat...I probably only
needed 1 coat of top coat for Eclipse and Museo...but applied two because of
the Photo Rag.

Final Results:

Eclipse and Museo give beautiful coated prints.  They have a light sheen
that doesn't look at all plastic.  Its not a high gloss like a photo
paper...the print still has the character of something printed on a fine art
paper.  Blacks (and colors in the Color Piezo prints) are rich and deep.
The prints appear to be dimensional compared to their uncoated companions.
Looking straight on you don't notice the gloss...you just see a rich deep
print...to the side the print glares some.

Photo Rag, like Orwell and Wells River, coats well but the character of the
print changes.  It seems that the entire range of grays (including black)
increases in intensity to the point that the shadows tend to get muddy.  I
think this could be corrected by printing a slightly lighter print...but it
would require some tweaking...probably using a correction layer before you
do your final tone correction.  Its interesting that this is not because the
blacks in the Hahnemuhle papers are strongest.  The Epson Driver printed
Eclipse has blacks that are as strong, if not stronger than the Photo Rag,
but does not show this behavior.  In my prescreen of about a dozen different
papers, only the Hahnemule papers showed this behavior.

Hope that helps...I'd be interested in hearing comments from others who have
been experimenting with coating.

Robert




----------------------
Robert Morrison
rmorrison@...

310-397-2704

4131 Bledsoe Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90066

------ End of Forwarded Message

on 10/14/01 11:41 AM, Robert Morrison at rmorrison@... wrote:

> Hope that helps...I'd be interested in hearing comments from others who have
> been experimenting with coating.

I got tired just reading about it.
-- 
John Brownlow

http://www.pinkheadedbug.com

On 10/14/01 9:28 AM, "Johnny Deadman" <john@...> wrote:

> on 10/14/01 11:41 AM, Robert Morrison at rmorrison@... wrote:
> 
>> Hope that helps...I'd be interested in hearing comments from others who have
>> been experimenting with coating.
> 
> I got tired just reading about it.

Given, my recent experience with clogs in my 1160's...coating is definitely
the easiest part of the process.

Robert


----------------------
Robert Morrison
rmorrison@...

310-397-2704

4131 Bledsoe Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90066

Robert,

A couple of questions. Did you try the small white foam rollers? I 
have some but never got around to using them.

Any comments on the dust-in-the-coating problem when using the hair 
drier?

I do feel that if you know you are going to coat a print you will 
need to print it lighter. I put a BRightness/Contrast layer on the 
top of the image to control this. Depending upon the paper I believe 
a -10% to - 30% Brightness might be called for. A curve would be a 
better choice so that Dmax is not effected but will take a bit more 
work. If you are sticking to one or two papers then it would be very 
worthwhile to work this out for those papers.

Martin

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@y..., Robert Morrison 
<rmorrison@p...> wrote:
> This message is cross posted at the PiezoBW and Digital BW lists.
> 
> As many of you know I'm trying to develop a commercially available 
coating
> system that would be applied after printing to ink jet prints on 
fine art
> paper (not gloss or satin papers)...particularly for pigment inks 
(Epson
> 2000P/7500/10000, Piezo BW and Color and MIS).  The system consists 
of two
> parts...a sealer and then a top coat.  Both parts are water-based.  
My
> previous tests showed prints with outstanding depth and 
dimensionality (like
> an glazed oil painting) with a 100% improvement in lighfastness as 
measure
> by dmax after a 6 week full LA sun fade.
> 
> I believe that the following comments will apply to those of you 
who are
> doing your own post-printing coating experiments.
> 
> I just completed tests on the following print/paper combinations:
> 
> Hahnemuhle PhotoRag 309g, PiezoBW, Orwell Profile (Royal Renissance)
> 
> Museo 355g, PiezoBW, Orwell Profile
> 
> Eclipse Velvet 350g, PiezoBW, Orwell Profile
> 
> Eclipse Velvet 350g, PiezoBW inks with Epson Driver and bumped up 
blacks
> 
> I also tested all of these papers with Color Piezo using the Epson 
Driver
> and the Orwell profile supplied by Cone.
> 
> Notes:
> 
> Application methods--many have expressed hesitance in coating 
because of the
> time that it would take.  To try to minimize this I tried a 7" 
roller from
> Home Depot.  The roller cover has a 1/4" nap.  The roller was $2 
and the
> covers were 10 for $10 (cheap! compared to a $30 varnish brush).  I 
used a
> plastic tray made for these rollers ($1.50) which cleaned out 
easily.  I
> began by pre-wetting the roller pad and then using my hand to 
squeeze out
> excess water.  The seal coat went down very easily.   The top coat 
had some
> bubbles that disappeared within 30 seconds.  I work on a 2 x 4 ft 
piece of
> laminate for easy clean up.
> 
> I coated 20 5x7 prints in about 3 minutes.  I used a hair dryer on 
cool to
> briefly dry the prints (about 5 minutes of effort). I waited 5-10 
minutes
> for the seal coat to dry and then applied another coat (about 3 
minutes).  I
> then repeated the procedure with the hair dryer and applied 2 coats 
of the
> top coat.  It took about an hour beginning to end with my actually 
doing
> something for about 30 minutes.  The prints were completely dry 
about 4
> hours later.  I would recommend allowing the sealer to dry longer 
in the
> future...but this would just be a wait...no additional working 
time.  The
> hair dryer is handy if bubbles appear because of the roller.
> 
> 
> Papers:
> 
> As I've mentioned in the past, the best papers to coat are heavy 
ones.  You
> can get acceptable results on lighter papers but they wrinkle more 
during
> application and so you have to pay more attention to drips and 
runs.  The
> papers tested are ideal for coating because of their weight.  I'm 
also
> looking forward to testing Somerset Enhanced 330g when a sample 
arrives.
> 
> All papers coated easily.  Hahemuhle papers tend to take more 
coating...so
> while I applied 2 coats of sealer and 2 coats of top coat...I 
probably only
> needed 1 coat of top coat for Eclipse and Museo...but applied two 
because of
> the Photo Rag.
> 
> Final Results:
> 
> Eclipse and Museo give beautiful coated prints.  They have a light 
sheen
> that doesn't look at all plastic.  Its not a high gloss like a photo
> paper...the print still has the character of something printed on a 
fine art
> paper.  Blacks (and colors in the Color Piezo prints) are rich and 
deep.
> The prints appear to be dimensional compared to their uncoated 
companions.
> Looking straight on you don't notice the gloss...you just see a 
rich deep
> print...to the side the print glares some.
> 
> Photo Rag, like Orwell and Wells River, coats well but the 
character of the
> print changes.  It seems that the entire range of grays (including 
black)
> increases in intensity to the point that the shadows tend to get 
muddy.  I
> think this could be corrected by printing a slightly lighter 
print...but it
> would require some tweaking...probably using a correction layer 
before you
> do your final tone correction.  Its interesting that this is not 
because the
> blacks in the Hahnemuhle papers are strongest.  The Epson Driver 
printed
> Eclipse has blacks that are as strong, if not stronger than the 
Photo Rag,
> but does not show this behavior.  In my prescreen of about a dozen 
different
> papers, only the Hahnemule papers showed this behavior.
> 
> Hope that helps...I'd be interested in hearing comments from others 
who have

> been experimenting with coating.
> 
> Robert
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ----------------------
> Robert Morrison
> rmorrison@p...
> 
> 310-397-2704
> 
> 4131 Bledsoe Ave.
> Los Angeles, CA 90066
> 
> ------ End of Forwarded Message

> A couple of questions. Did you try the small white foam rollers? I
> have some but never got around to using them.


No, these are pink and have fibers (1/4").  I tried foam brushes a while
back and didn't like them.

> Any comments on the dust-in-the-coating problem when using the hair
> drier?

The hair dryer was great.  I just coated a couple more prints just a few
minutes ago.  About 20sec on a 5x7 and its ready for the next coat.  No dust
significant dust problems...but you need to hang onto the prints.
 
> I do feel that if you know you are going to coat a print you will
> need to print it lighter. I put a BRightness/Contrast layer on the
> top of the image to control this. Depending upon the paper I believe
> a -10% to - 30% Brightness might be called for. A curve would be a
> better choice so that Dmax is not effected but will take a bit more
> work. If you are sticking to one or two papers then it would be very
> worthwhile to work this out for those papers.

I agree...but interestingly I only have problems with the Hahnemuhle papers.
I don't need to do a thing to Museo prints...but they do need a Piezo
profile (I'm using Orwell).  The thicker Museo (355g) is an incredible
coating paper.  I love this paper with color piezo.  I also think the lack
of brighteners is a real plus for this paper vs. some of the competition
(Eclipse and Photo Rag).

Robert

----------------------
Robert Morrison
rmorrison@...

310-397-2704

4131 Bledsoe Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90066