Digital BW, The Print

Has anyone on this group had experience with using the Inkaid product to coat by hand?  Paul Roark's mention of working with Arches or other papers has me thinking about exploring handcoating.  

When I look at the available coated papers...there is something missing.  Perhaps it is the simple matter of the mechanical looks of commercial paper.  I am looking for a depth and richness that is somehow lacking.  The notion of taking lovely substrate and hand coating strikes me as appealing...  But of course I fully expect this may be a fool's errand.

Any input by those who have experience would be helpful.  

Phil

I've worked with quite a bit of inkaid. There are several products for different substrates. Basically one transparent and one semi opaque. I find two coats are necessary to get a higher dmax with either product. I coat with either a foam brush (non absorbant surfaces) or a watercolor flat for paper. 
Order a sample sent and play with them. Golden Paints also makes a similar product.

Anne

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "KentB" <philip@...> wrote:

>
> Has anyone on this group had experience with using the Inkaid product to coat by hand?  Paul Roark's mention of working with Arches or other papers has me thinking about exploring handcoating.  
> 
> When I look at the available coated papers...there is something missing.  Perhaps it is the simple matter of the mechanical looks of commercial paper.  I am looking for a depth and richness that is somehow lacking.  The notion of taking lovely substrate and hand coating strikes me as appealing...  But of course I fully expect this may be a fool's errand.
> 
> Any input by those who have experience would be helpful.  
> 
> Phil
>

"KentB" <philip@...> wrote:
>...
> When I look at the available coated papers...there is something missing.  ...

I think it's a field that should be explored.  It's yet another way to make a product that is unique and more of a hands-one process.

I'm particularly interested in whether titanium white can be used in a coating to produce a bright paper with no OBAs in it.

Paul
www.PaulRoark.com

Kent,
I haven't used InkAid, but I have used (extensively) the newer products by Golden Paint, called Digital Grounds, which I believe are somewhat the same. I have used DG mostly on lutradur, metal, fabric, vellum and wood veneer - not as much on paper.

I think it's a wonderful product. You can get small bottles of it, so you could try it out at not great expense. 

Heidi
http://GardenDelightsArts.Wordpress.com



From: KentB <philip@...>
Subject: [Digital BW] InkAid
To: DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com
Date: Tuesday, November 3, 2009, 2:33 PM
                  Has anyone on this group had experience with using the Inkaid product to coat by hand?  Paul Roark's mention of working with Arches or other papers has me thinking about exploring handcoating.

Hi Paul,

I've made a 70 page photo album using a media made up of Monadnock Astrolite 100 lb cover paper coated with clear gloss inkaid. The album pages were printed in color using an HP Designjet printer (Vivera dye) and in monochrome using an Epson R1800 (Eboni+LK+LLK). I coated the prints with a Lacquer-Mat Diamond lacquer spray. The result is breathtaking and can endure the beating of a traditional bookbinding process.

The Monadnock paper is very white, has no OBA, and is acid free. Unfortunately they've discontinued the 100 lb cover weight. But thepapermillstore.com has some alternative of comparable quality.

The beauty of this inkaid stuff is it will accept all the ink I throw at it and dry quickly. I can apply the inkaid, print, and varnish the prints within a couple of hours using a hair dryer if I really need something quickly. This is not the case with any available swellable polymer products in the market right now. This is probably due to the uncoated substrate (Astrolite paper) that allows moisture to escape relatively quickly.

Fearing the disappearance of swellable polymer media from Ilford and HP I had to look for alternative and was so thrilled to have discovered Inkaid, or Golden digital grounds. I meant to send you some Inkaid coated sheets to you to try but haven't gotten around to it due to a major project I'm working on. Perhaps soon.

Best,
--nick

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "pr_roark" <paul.roark@...> wrote:

> I think it's a field that should be explored.  It's yet another way 
> to make a product that is unique and more of a hands-one process.
> 
> I'm particularly interested in whether titanium white can be used in 
> a coating to produce a bright paper with no OBAs in it....

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "KentB" <philip@...> wrote:
>
> Has anyone on this group had experience with using the Inkaid product to coat by hand?  Paul Roark's mention of working with Arches or other papers has me thinking about exploring handcoating.  
> 
> When I look at the available coated papers...there is something missing.  Perhaps it is the simple matter of the mechanical looks of commercial paper.  I am looking for a depth and richness that is somehow lacking.  The notion of taking lovely substrate and hand coating strikes me as appealing...  But of course I fully expect this may be a fool's errand.
> 
> Any input by those who have experience would be helpful.  
> 
> Phil
>


Clearly not as much as the other respondents, but I use it as well but only occasionally. I consider it great for specialty prints if you want to have something really different.

For "normal" prints I am concerned (but have not tested this) that the reproducibility of the coating is not good enough to reproduce all the delicacies of the tonal range of an image, as you have no garantuee that the coating of the actual print is the same as the ones you did your calibration/curve creation/test prints. So for normal prints I use out-of-the box papers.

But do the other respondents experience with this? Has one of you done a reproducibility test?

Joost

Hello Joost,

Yes, I have created color as well as QTR profiles for Inkaid'ed media and found the results to be quite predictable, and reproducible, providing you apply a thick enough coating, too much is better than too little. I have used exclusively the clear gloss material so I can't really speak for the matte version. 

The drawback to this approach is it requires a post coating of a solvent based lacquer. I found Lacquer-Mat works a little better than PrintShield in this area.

Since my preferred color printing engine is an HP Vivera dye machine, this alternative media is the only thing that can get me acceptable fineart prints. And as I had mentioned in an earlier post, my R1800 also prints exceptionally well on this media, not quite instant dry, but dry fast enough for my workflow. And the best thing is I'm no longer leashed to HP or Ilford swellable media.

These days I use lots of Arches watercolor and have the freedom to shop at many different papermills.

--nick

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "horstenj" <j.h.j.h@...> wrote:

> ...
> For "normal" prints I am concerned (but have not tested this) that the reproducibility of the coating is not good enough to reproduce all the delicacies of the tonal range of an image, as you have no garantuee that the coating of the actual print is the same as the ones you did your calibration/curve creation/test prints. So for normal prints I use out-of-the box papers.
> 
> But do the other respondents experience with this? Has one of you done a reproducibility test?
> 
> Joost
>

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "nghin" 
Which specific Laquer-Mat product do you use?

Thanks 

    Steven


<nghin@...> wrote:>

> Hello Joost,
> 
> Yes, I have created color as well as QTR profiles for Inkaid'ed media and found the results to be quite predictable, and reproducible, providing you apply a thick enough coating, too much is better than too little. I have used exclusively the clear gloss material so I can't really speak for the matte version. 
> 
> The drawback to this approach is it requires a post coating of a solvent based lacquer. I found Lacquer-Mat works a little better than PrintShield in this area.
> 
> Since my preferred color printing engine is an HP Vivera dye machine, this alternative media is the only thing that can get me acceptable fineart prints. And as I had mentioned in an earlier post, my R1800 also prints exceptionally well on this media, not quite instant dry, but dry fast enough for my workflow. And the best thing is I'm no longer leashed to HP or Ilford swellable media.
> 
> These days I use lots of Arches watercolor and have the freedom to shop at many different papermills.
> 
> --nick
> 
> --- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "horstenj" <j.h.j.h@> wrote:
> > ...
> > For "normal" prints I am concerned (but have not tested this) that the reproducibility of the coating is not good enough to reproduce all the delicacies of the tonal range of an image, as you have no garantuee that the coating of the actual print is the same as the ones you did your calibration/curve creation/test prints. So for normal prints I use out-of-the box papers.
> > 
> > But do the other respondents experience with this? Has one of you done a reproducibility test?
> > 
> > Joost
> >
>

Hi Steven,

I use the Diamond (ultra clear gloss) version in a spray can. I however have purchased a gallon can for large volumn spraying using an HVLP sprayer. The clear gloss inkaid requires a lacquer based coating.

--nick

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "Phiegze" <swp91011@...> wrote:

> Which specific Laquer-Mat product do you use?
> Thanks 
> Steven

On Dec 15, 2009, at 10:45 AM, nghin wrote:

> I use the Diamond (ultra clear gloss) version in a spray can. I however have purchased a gallon can for large volumn spraying using an HVLP sprayer. The clear gloss inkaid requires a lacquer based coating.


Does anyone know of any products other than InkAid? They only offer a gloss finish or to change the color of your paper, neither of which I want.


David Kachel



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

This is probably not the thing your needing but what about Lumijet Spray?

------------------------------

> On Dec 15, 2009, at 10:45 AM, nghin wrote:
>
>> I use the Diamond (ultra clear gloss) version in a spray can. I however
>> have purchased a gallon can for large volumn spraying using an HVLP
>> sprayer. The clear gloss inkaid requires a lacquer based coating.
>
>
> Does anyone know of any products other than InkAid? They only offer a
> gloss finish or to change the color of your paper, neither of which I
> want.
>
>
> David Kachel
>
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>

On Dec 15, 2009, at 3:54 PM, R.Ternbach wrote:

> This is probably not the thing your needing but what about Lumijet Spray?

You're right. That's not what I'm talking about. That's just a protective spray for after the fact.

David Kachel



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]