Are spray finishes necessary?

[Tony Ventouris Photography]

Im printing on an epson 3880 and mostly use ilford papers.  Smooth pearl or gold fibre silk.  When matte printing i use epson hot or cold press papers usually. 

Ive never sprayed my prints before... But it never struck me until now.  I spray other art mediums to finish them, usually its a matte spray.  But so jnkjet prints need "locking in?"  Is there any actual benefit?

[PeterAit]

My understanding is that the spray finish is for physical protection only, so I never use it on prints that will be glazed, only on prints that will not be covered.

[kers]

I have used the hahnemuele protective spray and for me it has some benefits..
I had a problem on some glossy papers that the colour blue was matt while the rest of the paper was glossy- ; after spraying this problem was solved.
In some cases the blacks get a bit deeper... Matt papers remain unchanged matt. No visible difference.
And what the spray does is cover the water sucking parts where little or no ink has come on to. So it indeed protects the papers from getting stained...
( i use a HPZ3100 printer )

 

[John Nollendorfs]

If the print will not be put under glass and sealed in a frame, then there are several benefits to a protective spray. First, the inkjet papers are microporous,  so atmospheric contaminates can easily enter the paper, and especially ozone (an aggressive oxidant) can degrade the pigments. The physical protection is another benefit, but not as important as sealing the microporous surface.

[DeanChriss]

We seem to use some of the same papers. I've been printing with an Epson 7900 since 2008 and various Epson printers before that. Everything I print ends up behind glass. Prints going back to 2000/2001 show no problems and I've never used any type of spray after printing. AFAIK none of the printer/ink manufacturers have a recommendation about sprays. A few paper manufacturers do, but coincidentally they also market sprays. Without glass I would definitely coat the print with a spray but with glass I see little point in it.

[Jglaser757]

Do a search looking for spray varnishes. I asked a lot of questions about this topic.

[Ernst Dinkla]

The Aardenburg-Imaging tests show improved fade resistance for prints treated with the protection spray compared to prints without, same paper, same inks. Paper white shifts in time are lower too. There is less reason to use the spray when the print will be framed behind glass but without glass John's reasoning adds to the recommendation to use sprays. I have a 3'x3' print hanging here, PhotoRag Baryta bare mounted on DiBond and sprayed. It got some rainwater on the surface, water seeping through a wooden ceiling so not really clear. Discovered that problem not right away but the print could be rescued to my surprise, an unsprayed PhotoRag Baryta print would be lost.

Met vriendelijke groet, Ernst

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