Help! Pigment Prints fading/becoming mottled during shipping...

[benedictus32]

Hi folks, I need help with this problem desperately! Lately, my prints have been arriving at my exhibitions with spotting/fading/splotches in the darks and visibly faded lines where the interleaving contacted/put pressure on the print surface. It is almost as if I left the print partially covered in the sun and the sun gently bleached the exposed surface. However, these prints are being gently layered between sheets of vellum and rolled around a 6 inch core for shipping after 48 hours of drying time...

A: I would love to know what is causing this sudden problem (never had it before)

B: Can these prints be saved?

Details:
Printer: Epson 7800 & Epson 9800 with genuine Epson inks
Paper: Hahnemuehle Photorag 310 gram
Interleaving: Soft Architect's Vellum

 

[pharmacist]

Aha,

now you can see the that even pigment inks can fade and you use the acid free high quality Hahnemuehle papers. I would suggest to reprint the pictures again and apply a protection layer on the prints after drying to seal the pigment particles from air and UV-light.

 

[remrem]

@pharmacist

what kind of protection layer?

are there any special paper that has already have a protection layer?

or use a special spray for protection?

 

[lolopr1]

Hi folks, I need help with this problem desperately! Lately, my prints have been arriving at my exhibitions with spotting/fading/splotches in the darks and visibly faded lines where the interleaving contacted/put pressure on the print surface. It is almost as if I left the print partially covered in the sun and the sun gently bleached the exposed surface. However, these prints are being gently layered between sheets of vellum and rolled around a 6 inch core for shipping after 48 hours of drying time...

A: I would love to know what is causing this sudden problem (never had it before)

B: Can these prints be saved?

Details:
Printer: Epson 7800 & Epson 9800 with genuine Epson inks
Paper: Hahnemuehle Photorag 310 gram
Interleaving: Soft Architect's Vellum

Your statement was lately . You didn't have that problem before? If your answer is no look on what is different on your work flow. Ex. New batch of paper or inks.

 

[mikling]

It's unlikely that the pigment ink has actually faded if it was a good quality and even then the chances of it is remote.. I would tend to think that there was some contamination on the paper that compromised ink adherence or the vellum abraded the ink on the surface. or the following....

The issue of dry times crops up again with pigment inks, is enough time being allowed to propery dry the prints prior to shipping? With pigments, dry to the touch is not necessarily properly dried. The resin in the pigment ink needs to properly dry and cure before full adhesion and stability is reached. Color shifts are measurable after proper drying . I will not properly evaluate a print until at least a few hours with pigment inks and preferably 24 hours. Similarly I would also allow 24 hours of drying prior to packing and shipping as well. (I am always bewildered at how some stores will demonstrate the output from pigment ink printers in the store while the customer waits to compare the output to that of a dye ink printer...)

As lolopr1 had mentioned, it is something that has crept into the process and not normal. Coating it may help, but it may be an unnecessary procedure if the problem was simply an oddity of sorts or due to a change in the workflow.

 

[choco_late]

@pharmacist: yeah, what kind of protection? i have a fixative spray ideal for pastel paintings. will this do?

 

[msmart]

I like mikling's contamination theory. I wonder how plain old humidity might also play a part if the Hahnemuehle Photorag paper were exposed to moisture and soaked it up through the air? Any chance of that?

 

[jasiiboss]

Prints that have spotting/fading/splotches and visibly faded lines guess have sufferred permanent damage and cannot be practically restored. You need to use tissue paper which is unbuffered in between prints.Non-buffered papers are best with albumen, cyanotype, dye transfer, and chromogenic color prints. What you need to look for is the material being listed as having passed the photographic activity test (PAT).& Mikling's theory on contamination sure has a lot of merits.

 

[rehardwick]

When I was in the corporate world in engineering, and we wanted to protect important drawings, we used Krylon #1311.
Krylon markets other sprays for various applications.

http://www.krylon.com/products/matte_finish/

This might help you.

We also used Zipatone clear Plastic Spray, but I can't find it on the map anymore.