Luminous Landscape Forum
Raw & Post Processing, Printing => Printing: Printers, Papers and Inks => Topic started by: Simmons on October 23, 2020, 07:55:45 am
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Hello,
Before anyone tell me, I think laminating a fine art print is like a murder. Nothing is beauty like a nude paper where you can see the texture and the colors.
But now I'm in a situation where I need to laminate a fine art print for a photo book. Since I would like to use a Matt paper like Canson Rag Photographique, is there any particular film I can use? I tried the Filmolux Photo Matt and too bad I still see micro bubbles I don't like. They are not so visible, but I see them. So I was wondering if I need to change the paper or the film. Will an hahnemuhle ultra smooth work better?
Thank you
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Hello,
Before anyone tell me, I think laminating a fine art print is like a murder. Nothing is beauty like a nude paper where you can see the texture and the colors.
But now I'm in a situation where I need to laminate a fine art print for a photo book. Since I would like to use a Matt paper like Canson Rag Photographique, is there any particular film I can use? I tried the Filmolux Photo Matt and too bad I still see micro bubbles I don't like. They are not so visible, but I see them. So I was wondering if I need to change the paper or the film. Will an hahnemuhle ultra smooth work better?
Thank you
What could work, somewhat, is the protective spray of Hahnemuhle. All laminate options assume a smooth no-texture glossy (gloss to semi-matte) type of paper (not a Fine Art Mat as you suggest).
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Yeah I know and use it. But in this project I need to create a Leporello book and on the bends (on convex bends) the paper and print get ruined. So I thoughts a good solution could be a lamination. I hate it but seems the only solution. The problem despite the obvious murder of the print is the micro bubbles that comes from the Matt paper who is porous and micro textured.
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I forgot to mention that I tried with the protective spray but is not enough.
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Yeah I know and use it. But in this project I need to create a Leporello book and on the bends (on convex bends) the paper and print get ruined. So I thoughts a good solution could be a lamination. I hate it but seems the only solution. The problem despite the obvious murder of the print is the micro bubbles that comes from the Matt paper who is porous and micro textured.
A larger radius for the bend , assuming a creasing tool is used, may help. In my experience with this it helped, especially with dark prints across the crease. Also do the creasing before more than 24 hrs of drying, say next morning, can help.
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The protective spray can help against getting slight printing from opposite page.
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If I understand right, the hinges - folds - will be in the photo paper itself, and that's causing your problem. I can't help but think there are commercially available hinges for this. Or make your own with heavy linen paper and archival glue.
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maybe you can make shallow cuts ( with a knife) where it bends, so you know where the problem will be and give them a suited colour by handcolouring them.
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You can pretty much remove the silvering by either using a warm vacuum press, or by gently heating with a hairdryer, and rubbing with a microfibre cloth, so the glue and the warm laminate conform with the paper texture.
Rag Photographique is a pretty smooth paper. I've tended to use the DryTac Satin Matte, or photolustre for most work, but none of the these has been folded.
I'd still look at a spray.
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Just curious as to why you need to laminate a photo for a book. Are children handling it and you're worried about damage?
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This is the problem.
I thought that lamination could solve the problem. In the attached images you can see without the lamination and with it. The result is amazing but I still get some micro bubbles with a fine art paper like Canson rag Photographique. I think I will need to use an rc paper.
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With lamination
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This is the problem.
I thought that lamination could solve the problem. In the attached images you can see without the lamination and with it. The result is amazing but I still get some micro bubbles with a fine art paper like Canson rag Photographique. I think I will need to use an rc paper.
How do you crease?
I have done several leporellos, both fine art matte and gloss and rc, but never with such a bad result on the crease. Provided the crease tool was set to an good width.
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Yes with a crease tool. What you see is the exaggeration to see the damage in a long run. The actual damage bending is less than that. But this don't change the bad results that even if barely noticeable, are not acceptable.
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In digital printing (sheet printing) a manual scoring machine is a must to keep the ink from cracking in the fold.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zLh40QDc2Q
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In digital printing (sheet printing) a manual scoring machine is a must to keep the ink from cracking in the fold.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zLh40QDc2Q
that is exaclty the machine i use. But this does not prevent to create damages in the convex crease. Not always but often.
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Since you probably are not acquainted with paper making, paper does have grain. If you try and fold it across the grain, it will tend to give you an ugly crack. Turn it 90 degrees, and you will see the fold comes out quite smooth. Some papers are more prone to this than others.
John
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that is exaclty the machine i use. But this does not prevent to create damages in the convex crease. Not always but often.
Can you change the radius or width of the crease? The device I use has a bar with different width’s .
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Maybe you should contact the agencies that are engaged in lamination?
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A high-quality lamination film must contain >50% PET. Such a film is more elastic and protects the picture better. Buying a cheap movie from an unknown manufacturer, you may encounter a film in which an EVA adhesive layer prevails. The low price is achieved due to the manufacturer's savings on raw materials. However, I have never done lamination on my own. Most of the paintings in my house were bought from Persian Fine Art (https://masudvalipour.com). They are new, so they do not require any additional processing. I hope you will be able to realize your idea.
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paper does have grain. If you try and fold it across the grain, it will tend to give you an ugly crack. Turn it 90 degrees, and you will see the fold comes out quite smooth.
+1
The technical term is machine direction, I guess. You can
identify it's direction by bending a square (!) piece of your paper in both directions. You will notice that in one direction it bends more easily - this indicates the direction you should use for creasing/bending.
In many cases, machine direction goes with the long side of a paper. Since you are printing leporellos (loooong prints ;-) I guess you a creasing/bending perpendicular to the long side. So John could be dead-on.
On the other hand, inkjet coatings make paper surfaces kind of brittle (I see that effect when cutting coated matte papers like FineArt Velvet from the back side). So perhaps lamination is the way to go, no matter how you grease/bend. In this case you'd better use some glossy RC paper (or the like) with smooth surface - I see no advantage in using Rag Photographique here.
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You could try hahnemuhle book and album which is printable on both sides and has the grain aligned with the short side.