Lentic - photography

It seems the Harman Gloss FBAL paper still has a surprise or two for me. Earlier I complained about how susceptible the surface is to scuffing. It was enough to just pull the finger nail lightly against the surface to get big nasty marks. My solution to this was obvious, just be careful. I didn’t however see how these prints could survive for long in a folio binder or in a hand bound book.

Today I picked up a print I made little more than a week ago. It was kept precious for about five days until I decided to edit the image and make a new print. After that, the print spend almost a week among the trash at my desk, rubbing against all sorts of office hardware. Imagine my surprise when I discovered it was almost spotless. I dug through the pile of test prints, and even the ones with a lot of stuff marks were resistant now.

My conclusion is simple and obvious. This paper / ink combination needs a long time to Cure. I already knew the surface needed to settle over night to look its best, but it Seems like you should leave it even longer before it is fully hardened. Haven’t experimented, but I would let them alone for two days before I start to handle them.

So, one more issue out of the way

A side note:

I don’t really know for sure how the ink is working, but I know the pigments are encapsulated in some sort of polymer, a then mixed with a fluid solvent. When the ink is applied to the paper, the fluid evaporates fairly quick, but what if the ink really needs even more time to cure. If the polymer encapsulation is not fully hardened, but forms stronger bonds between each other and the paper after the fluid is gone. This is quite common in different types of paint, so why not. That would explain why the print needs this long time to settle. The differences between papers may easily be explained by how deep into the paper the ink soaks, and the adhesive properties of the surface coating.