Digital Prints

280
Mastering Digital Printing
Drying
It’s essential that your digital prints be completely dry before moving them to the next
step, whether that be mounting, framing, storing, or shipping. Certain inkjet ink solvents,
such as glycol, need extra time to dry, and this can take anywhere from 24 hours to several
days depending on the inks and media used plus environmental factors such as temperature
and humidity. Some imagemakers even let their prints dry for weeks! Fogging,
misting, and clouding inside a glass-covered frame or a clear storage bag can be the result
of not following this advice (see “Gas Ghosting”).
High-volume printmakers solve the obvious space problems associated with drying by
using commercial print-drying racks, sometimes in combination with forced-air heating
systems (see Figure 9.1). These can be expensive new, but they can sometimes be picked
up used from screenprinters.
Individual imagemakers
have come up with their own
creative approaches to print
drying. For smaller prints,
some, like John Nollendorfs,
use hand hair dryers. “I have
a hair dryer that I use to dry
my test patches for profiling,”
he says, “and whenever
I need a print to give a client
quickly.” However, he also
recommends that people
“put their prints in a drymount
press for 30 seconds
to one minute to minimize
the gas ghosting problem
(see “Gas Ghosting”) prior
to framing. “I think this
makes more sense than letting
prints sit around for a
week under unknown
humidity conditions hoping
that this takes care of the
ghosting problem.”
Photographer Ken Smith lets his Epson UltraChrome (Premium Luster) prints sit for a
good hour after printing. He then covers them with plain bond paper to soak up excess
ink residue for a minimum of 48 hours. Then he hangs up the prints for another 48 hours
(see Figure 9.2). Finally, he top-coats them with Lyson Print Guard spray. “This method
is fine if I am not busy, but workspace comes at a premium, and there’s only so much room
to hang up prints. The place starts to look like a meat locker at times!”
Figure 9.1 Robert Kildoo at the
drying rack at Thunderbird Editions in
Clearwater, Florida. Prints are loaded
from the bottom up; each rack is
spring-loaded. This is a standard
drying rack found in most
printmaking studios.
Courtesy of Steve Carlisle
Thunderbird Editions