Digital Prints

286
Mastering Digital Printing
While this has been a relatively unresearched area in the past with all sorts of wild claims,
coating products do seem to be improving with the permanence spotlight now shining on
this area of digital printing. However, reasonable caution and adequate research into claims
and testing methods are in order for any imagemaker intending to use print coatings.
One popular product is PremierArt’s Print Shield spray. This is a low-odor, lacquer-based,
aerosol-can spray designed specifically for inkjet prints. Print Shield has even been allocated
a special category in Henry Wilhelm’s Display Permanence Ratings, and the results, according
to Wilhelm, are very encouraging. For example, in the May 1, 2004 testing results for
the Epson 4000 printer, the predicted life for Somerset Velvet for Epson and UltraChrome
inks is 62 years for prints displayed under glass. The very next line on the chart shows the
same paper/ink combination and again under glass, but this time a sprayed coating of Print
Shield bumps the predicted lifespan up to 166 years! (Note that this is with the spray coating
and glass framing, which apparently provides the almost-triple protection. The same
chart shows the identical combination with only the Print Shield at 75 years.)
Do you really need to coat prints that
will ultimately end up framed under
glass or in an album of some type? As
inkjet expert Dr. Ray Work says, “Glass
is good, but coating and glass is better.”
Others, however, believe that if you’re
using long-lasting inks that are wellmatched
to the medium or paper, coating
your (paper) prints is very optional.
Canvas prints are more likely not to go
under glass, so in that case, coating
makes much more sense.
Chris Polson, whose company Twin
Brooks also stretched the canvases,
brushes ClearShield Type C semi-gloss
liquid laminate onto Dot Krause’s
inkjet-printed panels for the Boston
Federal Reserve Bank murals.
Courtesy of Chris Polson
www.midcoast.com/~twnbrook
PremierArt Print Shield is a lacquerbased
spray designed specifically for
inkjet prints.
Courtesy of Premier Imaging Products