Digital Prints

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Mastering Digital Printing
Albums: While early photographic albums were made with materials that were actually
harmful to prints, many contemporary albums follow ISO standards for permanence.
Album pages are generally safe if they are acid-free, buffered, and lignin-free. If there are
plastic sleeves or protectors, these should be made of either polyester, polypropylene, polyethylene,
or polystyrene. Polyvinyl plastics or cellophane should be avoided because they
are brittle and unstable.
Lineco (PopArt) carries a whole line of professional, do-it-yourself albums for digital prints.
Ztra and Creative Memories are other well-known album providers.
General Print Storage Tips
■ Handle prints as little as possible, but when you do, do it with great care as you would
any original artwork. Wash your hands and wear white cotton gloves whenever possible.
■ As with framing, make sure prints are completely dry before storing.
■ Because heat and humidity significantly shorten print lifespans, store your prints in a dark,
dry, and cool place. Shoot for a goal temperature of 68º F (20º C) to 77º F (25º C) with
30 to 50% relative humidity.
■ Store prints flat, but not in the open. Use dust-free cabinets, acid-free boxes, archival
sleeves, or albums. It’s okay to stack prints but separate them with sheets of acid-free glassine
or tissue.
■ Don’t store prints in areas with chemicals, such as in a photographic darkroom.
■ Don’t let prints come into contact with any objects that produce oxidizing agents, solvents,
monomers, acids, or other volatile materials. An incident in 2001 illustrates this
danger. Photographer Butch Hulett inadvertently put a newly made inkjet print on coated
paper on top of an ordinary pillow. He forgot about it, but the next day he noticed that
Figure 9.11 Three different size bags
from Impact Images are shown. On the
smallest, the adhesive strip is exposed
by pulling away a thin plastic covering.
The large bag at top has already had its
adhesive exposed, and on that bag the
adhesive is on the flap, which can cause
prints to stick to the adhesive when
removed from the bag. For large size
prints, these bags are best used with a
stiffener, such as acid-free matboard.
Photo and all images © Andrew Darlow