Handling marks on fine art roll paper?

[Malcolm Payne]

I use a Canon iPF8300 printer to produce fine art prints for clients. The paper path on these printers requires manually feeding media from the underside of the roll up past the guides to the take-up point. With stiff, heavyweight art papers, and particularly when using the inner part of the roll with more of a curl, it is virtually impossible to load these machines without touching the surface of the media itself, however lightly, at some point during the initial part of the feed process.

I take the utmost care to keep physical contact with the media to the absolute minimum necessary during loading but, even using a fresh pair of cotton gloves, I still sometimes find faint marks on the printed surface when checking the first prints from a run. These marks appear as a slightly less matte area in the form of a partial hand- or finger-print and seem to be pressure marks rather than scuffing as such, as I take the greatest care to ensure that at no time is there any 'wiping' movement against the media. The marks are very faint and are only visible in extremely oblique and directional lighting but, nevertheless, they remain a wholly undesirable artefact.

I use the Canson range of media almost exclusively, primarily their Aquarelle, Velin Museum Rag and BFK Rives papers in 310-315 gsm weight, but I have no reason to believe these are any more or less susceptible to marking than other similar matte papers. I can only conclude that the surface coatings on such papers are exceptionally delicate and that even the slightest contact may have adverse effects.

I've tried using the roll wrap as an additional buffer when unrolling and feeding the media, to reduce any physical contact even further, but that can be unworkably clumsy and can cause even more difficulties when attempting to load media with a curled leading edge.

Has anyone else experienced similar problems and found a workable solution?

Many thanks.

[howardm]

you'd need to determine if the marks are due to pressure, heat or finger oils. 

You may want to try nylon gloves or nitrile gloves instead of cotton.

[hugowolf]

I am surprised you are finding this with cold pressed papers, especially the heavily textured Arches Aquarelle. I often handle these papers without gloves and haven't noticed any problem; admittedly with the straight feed path of Epson printers.

Are you sure they are caused when loading and not when unloading and rewrapping the paper?

You could try experimenting with the first few inchers of the roll: deliberately using finger pressure in a known place, with and with out gloves, and perhaps with different gloves.

With Epson printers, I often have to de-curl the first inch or so of heavyweight papers when close to the end of the roll.

Brian A

[Geraldo Garcia]

I do agree with Howard, try nylon/polyester gloves.
I have noticed this issue with some papers, but rarely and always on smooth hot pressed paper. I use nylon gloves I bought decades ago for film handling, got a pack of a hundred pairs and still have sixty or so in use (use, wash, use again...).
Anyway, at first I tried cotton gloves with the prints but quickly moved back to my old nylon ones as I realized they slide better and tend to leave less marks.  

[Malcolm Payne]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I've been using nylon/polyester gloves previously, went back to white cotton for a trial as I thought they might be softer but there is no obvious difference in the incidence of marking, which occurs with new gloves of either type straight out of the packet or freshly washed.

My hands are 'normal', not excessively oily, and I usually wash them anyway before handling the paper and always wear clean gloves, so oil transfer is probably unlikely.

The marking could as easily occur when unloading and re-wrapping the roll, but I take as much care when doing this as when loading the printer; if anything, there is less direct contact with the media when unloading and I try as far as possible to wrap the outer protective layer directly onto the roll as it comes back out of the feed slot.

The marks are usually quite subtle and are not readily visible in most instances unless you're specifically looking for them, but I have had to reprint some images previously which had large areas of dead flat matte black where they were rather more obvious. Some of these prints sell to the end purchaser for quite large sums and neither I nor the artist are happy to see them go out with any defects, however minor.

Certainly all these papers will scuff or glaze quite readily when rubbed, but it isn't clear to what degree static hand pressure alone when loading might affect the end results. I'll experiment further when I get to the next end roll that I know hadn't been handled previously, but at the moment I can't think of any way in which it would be possible to handle the media any more carefully and minimally than I already do.

Any further suggestions or user experience would be most welcome.

Edited to add 'when rubbed' to first line of penultimate paragraph.

[smjphoto]

I would suggest just forwarding the first 6-12" through the machine after loading and have the printer cut it off, leaving untouched paper for the print. Sure it wastes a little paper, but if these are expensive prints, it's a small price to pay and would eliminate reprinting.

I would think the pressure rollers would cause more problems with sensitive surfaces than careful gloved fingers...

Stuart