Spotting Digital Prints

[jetcode]

I am getting some nice prints with the occasional white spot. Is this a function of dust on the paper, missing coating?? Does anyone spot inkjet prints, if so, what do you use?

[David Luttmann]

Some of the cotton rag papers flake off during printing. I always wipe them down with a soft brush in case anything has loosened during shipping and blow it off with canned air.

I haven't found dust a problem as the amount of ink being laid down would more than cover dust.

[Kirk Gittings]

Ditto DAvid.

I spot mine with a traditional spotting brush and my old ink carts (which have plenty of residual ink). I simply stick the brush tip in the opening and spot as usual. I stick a piece of scotch tape over the opening of my old ink carts after discarding them to keep the ink from drying out. You can also just pull your current carts, spot, and then return them to your printer.

[BarryS]

I use an architect's brush to gently brush the paper surface before printing and haven't had any problems. I think white spots generally occur when small bits of paper debris cling to the coated surface and later flake off after or during printing. I have heard of the occasional coating imperfection, but it seems to be less common.

[mrladewig]

Along those lines, one of my cats likes to sit on top of my printer. Sure enough, one of his hairs got in there and left a white line on a print. The hair was actually still on the print when it came out in this case. After that I had a cover made for the printer.

My printer is getting old enough that I think it has probably a bit of the fuzz from cotton papers in it. It could probably use a dusting/cleaning of the paper path. More to add to the list.

[Brian Ellis]

Fortunately spotting isn't something I need to do very often any more but when I do I use the same things I used in the darkroom - a set of 10 "SpotPens" ranging in tone from very light gray to black. A life saver for me back when spotting was an every-day chore that I didn't do very well with the traditional ink and brush and still useful. I don't know if they're still made but the old address in case anyone wants to try to order a set was SpotPen, P.O. Box 1559, Las Cruces, NM 88004.