Signing, stamping or embossing photographs

[Jason Greenberg Motamedi]

I have a library embosser which I use for labeling books, et cetera. I purchased it at Kate's Paperie in NYC, and had a male/female embosser made through them. I would imagine any high-end stationary store would carry them, although a quick google search for "library embosser" provided a very large list.

[Keith Laban]

Personally I sign the border in soft pencil and this gives the option of matting with the signature showing or not. This is exactly the way that I would sign any other type of print.

I can't help feeling that embossing looks rather too slick and commercial. Signing the mat alone results in an unsigned photograph.

[Leonard Metcalf]

I routinely emboss all of my work, particularly my cheaper work (Special Editions), so that I don't have to keep signing over and over. I always sign my limited editions. I have tried various archival pens, pencils over the years. One conclusion is that the mark (signature or embossing) should either add to the image, or be totally quiet. I think this should be a reflection of you as an artist. I am now printing exclusively on cotton rag papers, and now always use a pencil. As I print my work with a border, I number the print with the edition in the LHS, put the title in the middle and my signature on the RHS, all just under the image (1/4 inch). Then I lastly add the embossing mark in the RH Corner so that if the image was framed without my signature the emboss would only just be visible. This is how we editioned my lithographs and etchings at art school, so I used the same methodology.

If you do go for embossing, get a sturdy press. I broke my first press trying to emboss cibachromes, and you couldn't really see the mark, no matter how much pressure I put on the press. Another mould would cut the prints. I had to search to find a suitable press, and then get the operator to make the moulds at a suitable depth for the paper I was using. On the third try I got it right. Here in Australia I would suggest Featherstones in Frenches Forest, Sydney, as they stock a heavy weight press and make their own moulds. It is my understanding that embossing won't change the archival properties of the print unless the emulsion is cut. The prints usually deteriorate from the edges where the acid gets into the emulsion layer.

[Ralph W. Lambrecht]

Signing the mat alone results in an unsigned photograph.

Not with dry-mounting. The print and the mat become one.

[tim atherton]

Not with dry-mounting. The print and the mat become one.

until the print has to be removed from the board.... :-)

[Ralph W. Lambrecht]

until the print has to be removed from the board.... :-)

I think we are in danger of getting off-toic and into the dry-mount issue again, but I wouldn't even try to take a dry-mounted print off again. For me the print and the board are becoming one through the process.

Therefore, a signature on the mat is part of the print. That's the way AA did it, but I do it more because it looks professional to me. I dislike 'prominent' signatures as they look pretentious to me. Also, I have some prints from friends, who marked them with a 'archival' pen, and the signature is slowly soaking into the emulsion, starting to look unsharp and weak. No, I'll stick to a #2 pencil, for now.

[Keith Laban]

I think we are in danger of getting off-toic and into the dry-mount issue again, but I wouldn't even try to take a dry-mounted print off again. For me the print and the board are becoming one through the process.

Archival techniques need to be reversible. If they are as one then the archival qualities are compromised, if they are reversible and only the mat is signed this results in an unsigned print.

[robc]

there's nothing to stop anyone from signing both the mat and the back of the print so that if they are separated, the print is still signed.

[Ralph W. Lambrecht]

Archival techniques need to be reversible. If they are as one then the archival qualities are compromised, if they are reversible and only the mat is signed this results in an unsigned print.

Really? Toning is not reversible. Does that make it not archival?

[Paul Coppin]

Embossing stamps are available through companies that provide lawyer's and corporate seals. They're not particularly cheap, especially if you have a custom die cast, but then , if you're bothering with embossing them, you're likely selling them, so you can expense it out...