Paper for Piezography K7 inks on a 9600?

[JoelBelmont]

I am looking into a 9600, and heard that for B&W printing from 4x5 scans, Cone's inks are a good choice. I've seen some piezo prints before, and they look great.

It's come up before, but can anyone recommend paper that would fit this bill well?

I've heard that Sommerset PE is good, HM Photo Rag is good but succeptable to offgassing, crane museo max is good, and some different epson papers.

I know it's a matter of personal preference, but I am sure someone must have run this gamut before me... I would be printing mostly matte, and am looking to make 40x60 prints from drum scans.

If you would like to reference the way my work looks, you can find it here: http://www.joelbelmont.com

Thanks.

[Bruce Watson]

I use Hahnemuhle Photo Rag with Cone inks. It's an excellent fit. Cone developed his K7 inks to be neutral with Photo Rag.

The bigger question is, how will you display prints on paper that size? Conventional framing that size is problematic at best. For example, it's very difficult to get matte board bigger than 60 x 40 inches, which is your print size. This means that you'll have to piece together an over-matte...

Anything above about 20 x 25 inches I print instead on canvas which I mount on stretcher bars just like you would an oil painting. I find the results excellent, and life much easier this way. Just a thought.

[Ted Harris]

Don't worry about the offgassing ... you jus tlet the print sit out for 24-48 hours and all should be well. As for specific papers you are going to need to do some testing with specific papers for the images of interest. Not every paper works with every image. I use Photo Rag a lot but just printed an image that looked awful on Photo Rag and great on two other papers. Either get some sample packs or buy smaller size boxes to do your experimenting.

As for the size, I always ask this question when people say they are going to print this large (and if you've done it before this doesn't apply) ... have you really thought about the size of a 40x60 print? Or, a matted and framed 40x60 print which is now even bigger? There are clients that want art this size but not many for private showing. How many homes have a 4 foot by 6 foot space available?

[Walter Foscari]

Anything above about 20 x 25 inches I print instead on canvas
Bruce, do you then show it under glass or not?

[Ron Marshall]

I also use Hahnemuhle Photo Rag with Cone NK7 inks. Roy Harrington's $50 Quadtone RIP does an excellent job and has profiles for several papers.

With matt paper I have never had outgassing problems.


There are a few sources for 48x72 or 48x96 matboard, but 48 is the widest I've seen. See the link below.

http://www.crescentcardboard.com/pig0628.html

[Bruce Watson]

Bruce, do you then show it under glass or not?

You can do it either way. For me, one of the reasons I print to canvas is to get out of the framing business!

The joy of canvas is that you show it just like you would an oil painting. In my case, I make a gallery wrap (google it -- there are websites that give illustrated step by step instuctions, but I don't have any bookmarked). I print a black border around the image the size of the stretcher bars so the sides are black. A couple of little eye screws into the inside of the stretcher bars (so it will hang on the wall without gaps) with some picture wire between, then up on the wall it goes.

You could also frame it in a floater frame (http://www.floaterframes.com/retail/welcome.php) or a conventional frame. With or without glass, depending on your taste (and the frame of course).

So, how does one protect the surface? An acrylic varnish. There are dozens. Most of them come in matte and gloss and you can mix to get the gloss level you want. Either spray (typically HVLP) or roller coating. Coating is done before stretching.

Do some google searches. There are some websites out there that give step-by-step illustrated instructions on how to make a gallery wrap. I don't have any of them bookmarked though.