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Author Topic: Coating an inkjet print for a glossy or "wet" look...  (Read 4715 times)

DavidPalermo

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Coating an inkjet print for a glossy or "wet" look...
« on: June 17, 2018, 06:40:38 pm »

I print on mat paper with wide borders and would like to coat only the image area leaving the mat surface of the borders alone. Basically I want the image to look glossy or "wet" and the surrounding borders to retain it's mat look.

Today I tried a can of krylon "glossy" but it didn't work the way I expected it to. It also smells terrible! I think the label "glossy" meant it is to be used on glossy paper. The guy in the store said it would make wherever I sprayed have a glossy look but it doesn't.


Have any of you successfully tried what I want to do? What product did you use?

Thank you!
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NAwlins_Contrarian

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Re: Coating an inkjet print for a glossy or "wet" look...
« Reply #1 on: June 17, 2018, 06:56:24 pm »

Putting aside for a moment the question of whether you're likely to find any spray-on coating that gives a print on matte paper a "wet" look (which I interpret as meaning very glossy), the products to use or not use may depending on the ink you're spraying onto. What printer / ink are you using?

But more generally, I tend to suspect that you might do better just printing on a glossy or super-glossy paper and then using a matte-finish over-mat.
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DavidPalermo

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Re: Coating an inkjet print for a glossy or "wet" look...
« Reply #2 on: June 17, 2018, 08:13:24 pm »

I am using an Epson 3800 with UltraChrome inks.  Printing on Hahnemuhle Bamboo paper.

I've thought about your idea about printing on glossy paper etc... and matting it etc....  that's not what I want to do. 

If what I am asking cannot be done that's ok... I just want know if anyone here has had any success with this.

Thanks!

David
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nirpat89

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Re: Coating an inkjet print for a glossy or "wet" look...
« Reply #3 on: June 17, 2018, 08:38:36 pm »

I am using an Epson 3800 with UltraChrome inks.  Printing on Hahnemuhle Bamboo paper.

I've thought about your idea about printing on glossy paper etc... and matting it etc....  that's not what I want to do. 

If what I am asking cannot be done that's ok... I just want know if anyone here has had any success with this.

Thanks!

David

You have two separate requirements here, one to get a "wet" look and second the coating must only be on the printed area.  So even if you get a spray you like, how are you going to restrict it precisely.  Do you already have a process to do this (using a removable tape etc.)  I also spent quite a bit of time and effort a long time ago before all these baryta papers came out.  Nothing seemed worthwhile for a variety of reasons.  One idea that I got the materials for but did not follow through was putting a layer of gloss optimizer using third party refillable ink and cartridge (the printer I was going to use for this purpose, an Epson 1280, died before I could carry out the experiments.)  Anyway, that might be something you can try.  This will take care of the second requirement as well.  I don't know how much "wetness" you can get from a coat of the GO, though.

:Niranjan.
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stockjock

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Re: Coating an inkjet print for a glossy or "wet" look...
« Reply #4 on: June 17, 2018, 08:54:42 pm »

An epoxy coating like the ones you can find at https://www.artresin.com/ will certainly give you that wet look but I am skeptical that you can apply it without having any spill over onto the matte part of the paper.  Also, you should know that is it very hard to use these epoxy products without having any bubbles or slight waviness in the surface.  But it definitely gives a great wet high gloss look that adds a lot of depth to your image.
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mearussi

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Re: Coating an inkjet print for a glossy or "wet" look...
« Reply #5 on: June 17, 2018, 09:48:44 pm »

Don't know how well it would work for you, but this is designed for inkjet prints: https://www.lexjet.com/clearjet-original-type-a2000-3
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dgberg

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Re: Coating an inkjet print for a glossy or "wet" look...
« Reply #6 on: June 18, 2018, 09:37:07 am »

I print on mat paper with wide borders and would like to coat only the image area leaving the mat surface of the borders alone. Basically I want the image to look glossy or "wet" and the surrounding borders to retain it's mat look.

Today I tried a can of krylon "glossy" but it didn't work the way I expected it to. It also smells terrible! I think the label "glossy" meant it is to be used on glossy paper. The guy in the store said it would make wherever I sprayed have a glossy look but it doesn't.


Have any of you successfully tried what I want to do? What product did you use?

Thank you!

It does work.
You may need 4 or 5 coats though.
It will take 2 or 3 coats to seal the print. Once it is sealed it will start to build a gloss.
A much better (easier way) is to print on a high gloss paper. Then mount it to the heavier matte paper with a mounting adhesive similar to Print Mount Ultra.
If you go the spray route you will have to tape the image off to keep over spray off the borders. With all those coats you will have a builup of spray along the edges.
Not worth the effort in my opinion.

BrianBeauban

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Re: Coating an inkjet print for a glossy or "wet" look...
« Reply #7 on: June 18, 2018, 10:31:47 am »

5mil gloss laminate would be the best option. And I would recommend at least starting with a gloss paper, not matte.
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DavidPalermo

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Re: Coating an inkjet print for a glossy or "wet" look...
« Reply #8 on: June 19, 2018, 11:15:36 am »

Thank you for all your suggestions! Some of you misunderstood me I think but it might be the way I explained it. I don't want any area on the mat paper to be glassy except the image so I cannot start with glossy paper. I realize I can print on glassy paper and cut the image out and then mount or glue it to mat paper but I want to find a way to paint on the print before I do any other option. 

There is a photographer (Luis González Palma ) who paints on his Hahnemuhle mat paper to get a glossy look.  I will explore his technique and see if I might apply it.

http://gonzalezpalma.com/actualidad2/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/faam10_60_gonzalez_palma.pdf. ("Virginal, 1993–2011, hand-painted photograph on Hahnemühle watercolor paper, 413⁄4 × 413⁄4 in., edition of 5."

There is a print of "Vriginal" hanging in my favorite restaurant just down the street from me!  How lucky is that!???
« Last Edit: June 19, 2018, 04:10:50 pm by DavidPalermo »
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nirpat89

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Re: Coating an inkjet print for a glossy or "wet" look...
« Reply #9 on: June 19, 2018, 01:55:48 pm »

Thank you for all your suggestions! Some of you misunderstood me I think but it might be the way I explained it. I don't want any area on the mat paper to be glassy except the image so I cannot start with glossy paper. I realize I can print on glassy paper and cut the image out and then mount or glue it to mat paper but I want to find a way to paint on the print before I do any other option. 

There is a photographer (Luis González Palma ) who paints on his Hahnemuhle mat paper to get a glassy look.  I will explore his technique and see if I might apply it.

http://gonzalezpalma.com/actualidad2/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/faam10_60_gonzalez_palma.pdf. ("Virginal, 1993–2011, hand-painted photograph on Hahnemühle watercolor paper, 413⁄4 × 413⁄4 in., edition of 5."

There is a print of "Vriginal" hanging in my favorite restaurant just down the street from me!  How lucky is that!???

David:

Nice...kind of like monochromatic Mona Lisa.  I am intrigued....does he simply apply a clear paint on globally to give it a sheen or some reflective quality or does he actually create a texture/structure or even a tint to enhance his nearly painting-like photographs? 

Also, I am wondering why do you need the borders to be matte.  Does it add to the print visually to have that contrast of two different surfaces.  Can you not reverse your process and print on a glossy paper like many suggested here, but coat a matte material on the border.  There are also sprays available that will give a "flat" look.  May be even white paints that could do the same.  Just thinking out loud here...

After your post I decided to do an experiment with GO printing over matte paper.  I own a Epson p400 which has a built-in GO channel.  So I simply printed a white block with glossy paper parameters over an already printed Canson Photographique Rag paper .  First coat, I could see that the area became a little darker - clearly dermarking the area from the rest of the print.  Dmax probably went up but no "wet" look or added sheen.  Printed 2 more times over the same area, got progressively darker, still no sheen to speak of.  Canons have what they call Chroma Optimizer that might be different/better (or not.) 

Finally, as I mentioned I pursued the same thing long time ago.  One of things I tried that I came close to liking was applying a water-based "varnish" that painters use routinely (Liquitex High Gloss Varnish, for example.)   If I remember the major problem with this was that the paper, being very porous and hydrophilic, sucked up the varnish too much resulting in a disfigured print.  A solvent based varnish may work better in that respect. 

Good luck.  If you find something that works, please do share...

:Niranjan.
« Last Edit: June 19, 2018, 03:29:08 pm by nirpat89 »
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DavidPalermo

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Re: Coating an inkjet print for a glossy or "wet" look...
« Reply #10 on: June 19, 2018, 03:49:45 pm »

I could print on glossy paper I suppose but I’m not sure what I’d use to make the surrounding border a nice mat texture. Anyway, I want to explore printing on mat paper and painting over the image part, keeping the surrounding part of the paper mat.

I stopped into the restaurant this morning and snapped a photo of the photo I mentioned above. It has beautiful brush strokes hopefully that you can see here. He uses asphaltum paint mixed with turpentine.

I bought some Liquitex gloss varnish that I’ll try on some test prints. I may have to spray a protectant on the image before applying the Liquitex.
« Last Edit: June 19, 2018, 04:10:13 pm by DavidPalermo »
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DavidPalermo

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Re: Coating an inkjet print for a glossy or "wet" look...
« Reply #11 on: June 19, 2018, 04:35:29 pm »

1st test looks good! It’s not dry yet but encouraging so far. I’ll let it dry then apply another coat.
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nirpat89

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Re: Coating an inkjet print for a glossy or "wet" look...
« Reply #12 on: June 19, 2018, 04:49:46 pm »

I could print on glossy paper I suppose but I’m not sure what I’d use to make the surrounding border a nice mat texture. Anyway, I want to explore printing on mat paper and painting over the image part, keeping the surrounding part of the paper mat.

I stopped into the restaurant this morning and snapped a photo of the photo I mentioned above. It has beautiful brush strokes hopefully that you can see here. He uses asphaltum paint mixed with turpentine.

I bought some Liquitex gloss varnish that I’ll try on some test prints. I may have to spray a protectant on the image before applying the Liquitex.

Thanks for those photos.  Looks real good.  I can see the texture.  Almost like lacquer.

I forgot to mention, by the way, Liquitex works real good on canvas.  Depending on the number of coats, you can make it look like a painting.  I was going for a slight sheen and protection for displaying without glass so a couple of coats with diluted varnish seemed to do very well.  I have not made those for some time so I forgot.  On canvas, it also stayed largely at the surface so I didn't need any primer coat.
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nirpat89

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Re: Coating an inkjet print for a glossy or "wet" look...
« Reply #13 on: June 19, 2018, 05:02:02 pm »

1st test looks good! It’s not dry yet but encouraging so far. I’ll let it dry then apply another coat.

Damn, that looks awesome.  I can see a little bit on the border - clearly a nice gloss.  I wonder if I was using a wrong paper at the time that was super absorbent.  Are you using Hahnemuhle?  One thing great about the Liquitex is it is water-based with no smell, no need for ventilation etc and no waste spraying all over the place. 
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DavidPalermo

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Re: Coating an inkjet print for a glossy or "wet" look...
« Reply #14 on: June 19, 2018, 08:09:39 pm »

So far I am pretty happy with it.  Let's hope it's still "archival".  I'm not worried about the borders at this point.  I'm just testing on throw-away-prints. If this all works out I will make a stencil to keep the stuff on the image.
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nirpat89

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Re: Coating an inkjet print for a glossy or "wet" look...
« Reply #15 on: June 19, 2018, 08:50:19 pm »

So far I am pretty happy with it.  Let's hope it's still "archival".  I'm not worried about the borders at this point.  I'm just testing on throw-away-prints. If this all works out I will make a stencil to keep the stuff on the image.

Considering this is used by painters (careful bunch) routinely, and the fact that it is simply an acrylic emulsion in water, my guess is it should be archival.  I didn't mean to nit-pick about the border by the way.  I was just pointing out that the effect of the coating was quite evident there too.

How did you apply it?  Foam brush?

If those were throw away prints, I will take them... :)

:Niranjan.
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DavidPalermo

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Re: Coating an inkjet print for a glossy or "wet" look...
« Reply #16 on: June 19, 2018, 09:38:59 pm »

Thank you for your compliments!  So, I just brushed on a second coat and I also coated one un-protected print to see if it has any adverse affect.  The first ones I spray-coated with Hahnemuhle protective spray (https://www.hahnemuehle.com/en/digital-fineart/protect-authenticate/hahnemuehle-protective-spray.html).
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DavidPalermo

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Re: Coating an inkjet print for a glossy or "wet" look...
« Reply #17 on: June 19, 2018, 10:32:32 pm »

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nirpat89

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Re: Coating an inkjet print for a glossy or "wet" look...
« Reply #18 on: June 20, 2018, 08:08:57 am »

I wonder if this is the same formula as the Liquitex Varnish?

https://www.hahnemuehle.com/en/digital-fineart/protect-authenticate/hahnemuehle-varnish.html

May or may not.  Liquitex calls it an acrylic emulsion in water and lists no other ingredient and Hahnemuele calls it acrylic copolymer, but lists 6-8% of unspecified ingredients.  I also notice that they are touting it as an UV protection coating.  I suspect perhaps they have some other small molecules that are UV absorbents.  I didn't see Liquitex making that claim.  The base is most likely similar if not the same, perhaps an off-the-shelf item from the polymer industry.
« Last Edit: June 20, 2018, 09:11:24 am by nirpat89 »
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DavidPalermo

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Re: Coating an inkjet print for a glossy or "wet" look...
« Reply #19 on: June 20, 2018, 09:08:03 pm »

FYI...

According to Hahnemuhle:

"I checked with our Traditional FineArt rep, Joe Domeier, who is familiar with the Liquitex varnish.  He thinks the results, using the Hahnemühle varnish should be very similar. 

Both are acrylic varnishes, which leads him to think you will achieve similar results."


Hahnemuhle varnish does include UV protection.
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