Epson Cold Press Bright yellowing?

[terrywyse]

I've been doing some printing of pen and ink drawings for a local artist for the past couple of years. Started out using Breathing Color Optica One for the "fine art" prints and Epson Enhanced Matte for the "decor" prints. Because of the severe curl of the Optica One paper, I switched to using 17x22 sheets of Epson Cold Press Bright and Natural, mainly because the artist liked the texture of the Epson paper. Printing is done on an HP Z2100.

In dropping some prints off to her today, she showed me several of the Cold Press Bright prints that had started to yellow on the edges. She stores the prints between a couple pieces of corrugated cardboard and, while not kept in the dark, receive little to no light exposure. What's also interesting is that in some cases there are prints of Epson Enhanced Matte stored in the same cardboard folder as the Color Press Bright prints....the Enhanced Matte paper (cheap with loads of optical brighteners) shows ZERO yellowing while the Cold Press Bright prints next to them shows yellowing. I know that the Bright fine art paper has some measurable OBAs but I would assume it would be of a higher quality than the Enhanced Matte paper.

Anybody ever experience yellowing on Cold Press Bright paper or could offer an hypothesis on why this might be happening? It's allows along the non-inked border areas so I don't believe it's a chemical reaction although the prints are stored next to each other with no paper interleave. Intermixed were some old prints on BC Optica One that looked fine.

This is too bad because I really like this paper and print some of my own photography on it....hoping to find a cause so I don't have to switch to something else.

Regards,
Terry Wyse

[Ernst Dinkla]

Wonder what role the corrugated cardboard plays in this yellowing.  AFAIK the EEM is acidic, the Cold Press Bright should is buffered and acid free. On light induced color shifts of the paper white the EEM behaved worse than the Cold Pres Bright, see the Aardenburg-Imaging tests. You could check whether a load of sunlight gives back the white on the Cold Press Bright, there have been reports on several art papers that stained due to air pollution and could be rescued with light.

--
Met vriendelijke groet, Ernst

http://www.pigment-print.com/spectralplots/spectrumviz_1.htm
April 2014, 600+ inkjet media white spectral plots.

[Paul2660]

I have never seen it on the either the Hot Press Bright (which I believe has the OBA's) or the Cold Press.  I still use Optica 1 the most.

One thought on the curl.  Yes Optica 1 has a curl problem, however if you take one pass with it through a d-roller or similar device, that curl is 100% gone.  Optica 1 in my experience never re-curls.  Besides the Canson Arches paper, Optica 1 is the only other paper I trust to hinge mount in my very humid location. 

Link to d-roller info.  They have a 2" tube now, I have the 1.5" and would get the 2".  I notice now it's also made by Beinfang. 

https://www.itsupplies.com/D-Roller-Model-200-50-Width

Paul

[TylerB]

99% it's due to exposure to something outgassing, like the adhesive used to construct the box, not OBA fading or acid issues...
Is it a pretty strong color? Does it go away if you put the print in the sun? (obviously not otherwise recommended...)

[Randy Carone]

I'm fairly certain that the corrugated linerboard (it's not cardboard) is the culprit. Lots of lignin left in brown stock and acid is used to wash the pulp slurry before linerboard production. Not a good choice for storage.

Here's a note I just found in an article called 'Why do newspapers turn yellow over time'. I know fine art paper isn't newprint, but the phenomenon is the same.
The exposure of lignin to air and sunlight is what turns paper yellow. And here is the link
http://science.howstuffworks.com/question463.htm

[deanwork]

Even very small amounts of acid in cardboard can turn prints yellow fast, especially if they have brighteners. I've heard stories of entire limited edition portfolios staining in days when unknown chemicals or poor quality board is used in the portfolio cases. Similarly, storing prints in wooden flat files or wooden cabinets can do the same thing. I've had friends experience staining even with a small amount of acidic tape is is used in shipping packaging.

In many cases exposing these yellowed prints to sunlight may actually remove the stain. It is definitely worth trying.

john

[hugowolf]

I'm pretty sure it is the corrugated board. I have seen this happen with several different papers when stored in non-archival boxes for long periods. Buffered tissue on both sides might help, but in the long term archival storage of some sort is what is needed.

About the only things that do well in acidic containers are cyanotypes and blueprints.

Brian A

[davidh202]

It is the cardboard, and it is yellowing on the edges not due to light, but because it allows for more moisture to be absorbed and acidity to migrate to the CP  from the cardboard at the edges. Standard corrugated is about one of the worst things to store any artwork in !