DIY Photo Paper Coating?

[Grey]

Hey guys, anyone tried to DIY coat their papers?

I've always wondered if it was possible and I went to the local art stores for water color supplies. Turns out the humble gelatin is used for "sizing" water color papers, to reduce paint penetration and spreading... Sound's like it'd work in a pinch. Might even look like the Silver gelatin prints

 

[PeterBJ]

This looks like an interesting project.

Maybe swellable photo papers are made with gelatin? These links may be of interest: http://www.naturalpigments.com/vb/content.php?254-Sizing-Paper-and-Gelatin-Sizing and: http://h10088.www1.hp.com/gap/Data/supplies/training/photo_papers.pdf

Please report your results if you give it a try.

 

[crenedecotret]

It's funny that you ask that Grey, I had been asking myself the same question this week.

I heard that some papers may have kaolin clay (china clay) as part of their coating. I found this interesting as I have a ton of the stuff here.
I just don't know how it's used yet, and in conjunction with what.

 

[crenedecotret]

This might be interesting.. it's a patent for coated paper for inkjet printing
http://www.google.com/patents/US5985424

There are links to a ton of other related patents.

I'm not a chemist or scientist (just an IT guy!) but maybe someone here can summarize.

 

[Grey]

This might be interesting.. it's a patent for coated paper for inkjet printing
http://www.google.com/patents/US5985424

There are links to a ton of other related patents.

I'm not a chemist or scientist (just an IT guy!) but maybe someone here can summarize.

I went to take a quick glance, it shows that fumed silica was used. I don't think that's easy to get where I'm at. Probably is too advanced for DIY papers, or at least for me.

I just bought a small bottle of cooking gelatin (because Singapore have the lousiest range of art supplies and even if they have it, it costs a bomb), I'll coat some heavily textured 400gsm water colour paper over the weekend and report back the results.

I was looking in the direction of watercolour technologies cause' inkjet inks are waterbased and should benefit from similar coatings etc.

 

[mikling]

Sounds to me like you are trying to create the swellable type photo paper which is quickly disappearing as the microporous ones has taken over. The microporous paper has allowed the the dye ink printers to claim waterproof aspects to their prints. Of course, we know it is the paper and its semi permeable layer that allows the ink to seep into the paper/under the layer but prevent water from entering due to the pore size of the coating.

 

[crenedecotret]

Someone at another forum had mentioned having a bit of luck with plain elmer's glue. If you search "photo paper" and "PVA" you get a ton of results. One form of PVA is white glue...

I diluted a bit of glue with distilled water and coated some cover stock paper I had... I then left it in the sun to dry up.

Can you say worse print I ever did? I actually managed to make the paper much much worse lol

Let me know how it goes with the gelatin.

If we figure out a coating, this could be an interesting project https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySFfdsgNyaI

 

[Grey]

just coated a few sheets of 400gsm cold pressed water color paper, will update once its dry and printed. Did an overcoat on a print also as it was suggested on another forum.

Used: 2% by weight cooking gelatin (fish). Coated paper on both sides to reduce curling. Paper was coated with a brush liberally in all directions to ensure absorption and then finished with squeeze dried brush, brushed lengthwise across the whole surface.

 

[Grey]

Sounds to me like you are trying to create the swellable type photo paper which is quickly disappearing as the microporous ones has taken over. The microporous paper has allowed the the dye ink printers to claim waterproof aspects to their prints. Of course, we know it is the paper and its semi permeable layer that allows the ink to seep into the paper/under the layer but prevent water from entering due to the pore size of the coating.

hmm I thought it might be the same kinda stuff too. I wonder if it'd work with my printer since mine's a pigment printer - 9500 II. Any idea?

 

[The Hat]

I did a test on some 300 gm. paper which was clearly not suited for use in inkjet printers.

I coated one sheet with a few drops of Canon Clear Gloss using a piece of tissue paper
to apply it evenly and I left a second sheet Un-Coated. ( No curling )

I printed with dye ink first and then with pigment ink to see how the ink would sit on the two different sheets of paper.

The Results were that the Un-Treated paper caused bleaching between the colours and text
on both pigment and dye inks which was to be expected because the paper just wasnt suitable.

The coated paper however worked with the pigment ink but not with the dye ink
so if you want to make your own coating for paper then make sure you use one that is suitable for your printer.

Canon clear Gloss from a PGI-9 cartridge.