Which way to roll up prints ?

[larkis]

I remember being told by an art conservator that one should roll painted canvases with the painted surface on the outside to prevent the varnish from cracking due to compression. Has anyone found any adverse effects when rolling up prints for packaging one way or another ?

[Ernst Dinkla]

I remember being told by an art conservator that one should roll painted canvases with the painted surface on the outside to prevent the varnish from cracking due to compression. Has anyone found any adverse effects when rolling up prints for packaging one way or another ?

No issues rolling either way if the core you roll it on is at least 3" thick. A tissue paper rolled with it too. This is for paper prints up to 350 grams. I use a core with packing paper sheet attached by tape, Q style, sheet size wider than the print itself. With the instruction for the customer that the curl can be taken out by using the same core and the print rolled the other way around for some hours. Prints finished with HM protection spray should dry some time before packing, especially the RC paper types. The tissue paper may stick otherwise.
Fresh canvas prints with a thicker varnish finish will not crack either but be warned about tack the surface may have on anything, even the back of the canvas. Using siliconised paper to prevent that may cause reflection differences on the print surface if the varnish is still too soft.


Met vriendelijke groet, Ernst

http://www.pigment-print.com/spectralplots/spectrumviz_1.htm
July 2016 update, 700+ inkjet media white spectral plots

[Garnick]

I remember being told by an art conservator that one should roll painted canvases with the painted surface on the outside to prevent the varnish from cracking due to compression. Has anyone found any adverse effects when rolling up prints for packaging one way or another ?

Oddly enough this is a topic my framer and I discussed recently.  I do quite a lot of canvas printing for my customers, but I leave it to a local framer to stretch them.  She does a great job and I send my customers directly to her, not markup that way.  I've been doing this for at least 6 years, with only perhaps a half dozen situations in which a slight bit of cracking showed at the wrap-around edge.  She is quite adept at fixing such things, so it never actually became an issue.  This past winter was very dry and some cracking did occur, but was fixed as usual.  I suggested that she should unroll the canvas as soon as she receives it to let it relax and perhaps overcome this issue, albeit a small issue indeed.  As we talked about this a thought came to mind and I mentioned it to her.  We both agreed that I should start rolling the canvases with the image side out, instead of inward as I had been doing.  I hadn't actually put a name on it, such as "compression", but it does seem to fit the situation as I imagined it.  It just seemed to me that as the canvas is stretched and wrapped, all of that is done in the same way that the fabric had been presented, so perhaps less stress on the inks and varnish.  As I have mentioned, there were very few instances of cracking, and is so it was very easy to fix.  However, since I have started rolling the printed side out there have been no issues.  Perhaps simply anecdotal, but I believe this procedure does have some validity, in a rational thinking sort of way.  I use Breathing Color Chromata White canvas and Eco Print Shield.  I've been using that combination quite successfully for at least 7+ years, so need to change.  I hope this might help in some way.

Gary