44" printer recommendation?

[Adamphotoman]

All inkjet images need curing time. Both Epson and Canon suggest min 24 hours, but it will depend on your humidity. Keep in mind that if humidity is not stable then lifespan will be shortened. Once under glass a mat needs to be used to keep the image away from the glass. Perhaps a small pouch of desiccant could be included.
I mount and coat some of my prints to avoid glass. But I do know of the haze you are talking about. Even Cibas gave the same problem. I dismantled and cleaned a few framed 10 year old prints just last month.

[Thad Gerheim]

All inkjet images need curing time. Both Epson and Canon suggest min 24 hours, but it will depend on your humidity. Keep in mind that if humidity is not stable then lifespan will be shortened. Once under glass a mat needs to be used to keep the image away from the glass. Perhaps a small pouch of desiccant could be included.
I mount and coat some of my prints to avoid glass. But I do know of the haze you are talking about. Even Cibas gave the same problem. I dismantled and cleaned a few framed 10 year old prints just last month.

I like the desiccant pouch idea. It's the moving around of the photos when doing shows outside that, I think, is the problem. They sit outside at night, then warm way up durring the day, even if I keep them out of the sun.

It's interesting you mention Cibas and matting to avoid the glass. I was in Michael Fatali's gallery in Park City, UT and the sales lady pointed out that they mount his Cibas against the glass, she says the air degrades the photo and this is the best archival method. I never heard that before! For $27,000. a photo I would hope she is right.

[Drew Wiley]

Well that gal was utterly full of BS, as is much of Fatali's marketing strategy, including posting prices he probably rarely if ever gets even close to collecting. True hermetic sealing of Cibas etc is possible - I've done it - but it is a helluva lot more involved than
anything Fatali has capacity to accomplish. The correct kind of dessicant is layered onto
the perimeter strip and goes right into the frame rabbet - its an actual tape impregnated with a special version of the silica, and maybe it can still be ordered from conservation
suppliers (not to be confused with true hermetic techniques). But this has nothing to do
with outgassing of glycols from inkjets, which can take quite awhile if one understands
anything about glycols in general - they're in the ink in the first place specifically to keep
the ink from drying out and clogging the nozzles! Cold or humidity just slows the drying
process down, of course. Just comes with the territory; i.e., don't frame the prints fresh
and allow an appropriate cure time of up to several weeks.

[Adamphotoman]

I live on Vancouver Island,
The wet coast and most artists out here suffer the same temperature humidity condensation problems at sales. Even painters. Canvas coatings can get cloudy until the moisture leaves. I used to do Ciba printing for the University in Sk and those displays would get shipped to Three Rivers in Quebec for encapsulating in an epoxy. Now those are standing up except for the cigarette burns from stupid students.

Unless you can seal the whole framed picture as a single unit I don't think you can avoid your problem. Even matted prints in crystal bags can cloud over. Drew is giving good advise about waiting perhaps weeks before you assemble your frames.

Any unsealed place that will allow air exchange will be problematic. Some framers will tape the glass to the mat as a sandwich. Now if a sheet of tyvec were to be placed behind the mat it might work. You would need to assemble in a room with a

dehumidifier. Ordinary paper dust covers will allow humidity through the mat.

[Drew Wiley]

It's foggy most of the year here, so there are only certain seasons I can do certain things.
Usually autumn is the driest (but not at the moment!). So I built a big airtight dessication
chamber for whole frame assemblies for up to 30X40 prints. The moist air was removed via vacuum and a special silica gel system was used to temper everything to the proper RH.
Matboard etc could of course be pre-dried in the drymount press. Otherwise I had to make
special laminates, and the process was pretty involved but otherwise successful. A whole
different approach than those who were potting the print into expoxy or polyester. Probably remove the whole rig from the lab soon. Ciba days are over. Now if someone is
willing to pay big bucks for the framing itself, I'd just use optically coated acrylic to remove secondary reflections from a high-gloss medium like Fujiflex.