Dry Mounting inkjet prints

[Ed Eubanks]

Anyone ever dry-mounted inkjet prints? Anything I should know about it?

[Steve J Murray]

Ed, I have dry mounted several black and white inkjet prints with my Seal press and the lower temperature "Colormount" tissue at 200 degrees F. I used the exact method I would use for a fiber print, which means using a release board over the print in the press, and pre-heating the mount board to remove moisture. They look great. The heat didn't seem to alter the prints. I do wonder how the heat will affect the life of the print. I just did these for myself.

[George Stewart]

Since my 50+ year old drymount press broke more than a yeaar ago and hasen't been replaced, I haven't had a chance to try drymounting of inkjet prints. However, I have used Daige's Rollataq system on my most recent inkjet portfolio. This system uses archival adhesive in a roller applicator. For the mounting of inkjet prints where the edge of the photograph is hidden by an over-matt I will only use Daige's products - it is clearly better for use on delicate inkjet prints compared to drymounting, IMHO. I think that this product will give better results than dry mounting on extremely large prints also. If I recall correctly, a starter system with the small applicator is inexpensive.

[Jim Billlups]

I have had great success dry mounting inkjet prints from my Epson R800 printer. My temp. is at 200 degrees for about 45 seconds with the cover sheet. When comparing the dry mounted vs. un-mounted prints, there is no difference in tonality or colors. The bottom line, for me anyway, has been excellent results!

[Henry Ambrose]

I have some mounted Piezo prints that are about 5 years old and still look good. I use Colormount at 200 degrees for 2 minutes with a sheet of matte board under and another matte board and a release paper over the work. I've also mounted darkroom color prints, Fuji Pictro and Epson color inkjet prints using the same method with good results.

[Leonard Evens]

Ditto for me with low temeprature dry mounting tissue designed for color prints. I've done both bw and color inkjet prints that way.

[Brian Ellis]

Just curious - why do you want to dry mount ink jet paper? The only reason I know of for dry mounting traditional fiber base paper is that it can't otherwise be made perfectly flat. Except for that there would be no reason I know of for dry mounting at all and the problems some people (e.g. curators and collectors) have with dry mounting wouldn't exist. Ink jet paper is already flat, no need to dry mount it to get it that way, and since dry moutning is controversial why dry mount? So that a signature can be placed between the edge of the print and the overmat rather than signing on the border of the print maybe?

[Ed Eubanks]

Thanks for the replies, everyone. Brian, to answer your question-- I want to dry-mount for three reasons (I can't speak for anyone else). First, I use roll paper in my printer, so they don't lay flat. Second, apart from the messy spray adhesive that I occasionally (very rarely) employ, I have no other archival method of mounting photos in mattes; I've tried photo corners, but I've never been satisfied with them. Other methods (cold-mount presses, other adhesives) either strike me as cumbersome or costly to get started with, or both. Third, it's the way I mount photos-- and I don't have any plans to change anytime soon. If there is anything that folks on this forum can resonate with, it seems to me, it's the resistance to change for no big reason.

[Michael E. Gordon]

Ed: I'm not suggesting you change, but you did leave t-hinge mounting out of the list of ways to mount. For most, it is THE way to mount and provides perfect results. I support the bottom edges of the print with corners.

[Greg Miller]

"For most, it is THE way to mount and provides perfect results."

My experience with T hinges is that even when starting with a flat print, the paper "warps" as soon as the humidity changes. This does not happen with dry mounting and so dry mounted prints invariably look better to me.

[Harold_4074]

My two cents worth (waived because it's Tuesday): One of the reasons that I dry mount prints (b/w, fiber-based, almost exclusively) is that I find it difficult to evaluate an unmounted print. The ones that turn out to be good improve, and the others look worse, after mounting! I think this is because of flatness, cropping or trimming, and ability to look from more than arm's length away. It seems that inkjet images would behave the same way.

Anyone else notice this effect?

[Leonard Metcalf]

I gave up trying various gluing or permanent mounting methods and have turned to a better paper to get better results... for example using a heavyer weight paper has allowed me to just hinge mount and let the print hang... After loads of experimenting I found that very heavy mat papers (I am using Innova Museum 100% Cotton Rag @ +300 gsm on a roll - 7600 printer) and hinge mounting looks fantastic.. (the best choice in my opinion) the mat paper doesn't reflect with any variations in the surface as goes gloss paper... the prints look fantastic framed, matted or even unframed... only down side is that this is one of the most expensive papers on the market... (mind you it doens't have the flaking problems of the Hammerhumule papers) and they don't look like photographic prints... (mind you celibrating the difference between digital and analogue seems appropriate to me)