Good Machine-Cut Paper for (Inkjet) Pigment Over Cyanotype/VDB?

All,

Please forgive this newbie-level question.

I've been enjoying good success with digital negatives printed in cyanotype on Arches Platine. I'm starting to experiment with VDB, and will also using Arches Platine for that purpose. (I really like how this paper looks and feels and, importantly, already have a large quantity of it.)

Using my printer (an Epson P600), I'd like to generate some (inkjet) pigment over toned cyanotype/VDB prints. Keeping the registration aligned with my digital negative (for the cyanotype/VDB layer), inkjet/pigment layer, and paper is obviously a concern.

I feel like the easiest way to keep everything aligned would be to standardize on a single paper size, say 8.5x11, so I could use my printer to keep everything into registration -- having all of the steps using the same size base medium should make this pretty straightforward, since I'd just need to align the edges of the paper with the digital negative, etc.

The Arches Platine that I really enjoy comes cut down in 11x15" only, however, and I don't trust my measurement and cutting skills to be able to generate a nice 8.5x11" piece of it that could be easily aligned with both an 8.5x11" OHP negative and fed through the printer well.

Would anyone be able to suggest a nice machine cut 8.5x11" "fine art" paper that both would look good with a hand-coated cyanotype or VDB *and* would be easily fed and aligned with an 8.5x11" Pictorico OHP digital negative, then run through the printer again for the application of the inkjet pigments? Or am I going about this entirely incorrectly, with fundamental errors i my assumptions?

I got a clearance box of Epson Velvet Fine Art paper that I'm hoping will be a decent substrate for cyanotype and VDB; it's apparently a 100% rag paper, so maybe it'll work well.

Thanks in advance!

Try reversing the order, pigment first, then the wet process. Registration becomes much easier.

DennyS said:

Try reversing the order, pigment first, then the wet process. Registration becomes much easier.

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I had assumed that the inkjet pigment wouldn't survive the washing from the original cyanotype development, followed by the bleaching, gallic acid toning, and then final long wash.

If the pigment can make it through the coating / exposure / development wash / bleaching / toning / final wash, then, yeah, it will be a much easier!

It's worth a shot, to be sure, as it'll be a lot easier if it works. I'm not looking for perfect digital color on my pigment side (otherwise, I'd just be printing the thing entirely on a nice premium luster paper), so some color loss or shifting during the chemical processing and washing will be perfectly acceptable.

Thanks!

iggybug said:

I had assumed that the inkjet pigment wouldn't survive the washing from the original cyanotype development, followed by the bleaching, gallic acid toning, and then final long wash.

If the pigment can make it through the coating / exposure / development wash / bleaching / toning / final wash, then, yeah, it will be a much easier!

It's worth a shot, to be sure, as it'll be a lot easier if it works. I'm not looking for perfect digital color on my pigment side (otherwise, I'd just be printing the thing entirely on a nice premium luster paper), so some color loss or shifting during the chemical processing and washing will be perfectly acceptable.

Thanks!

Click to expand...

I have done some Pt/Pd over Pigment - in that order. Most people do it that way. The pigmented image survived the processing just fine. Not sure about bleaching / toning, but it should be easy to check. Just run a inkjet printed strip thru your whole process and see.

You also probably won't get satisfactory registration by simply using the edges as the printer does not always do a great job aligning the paper even if it is machine-cut. Instead I would recommend using registration marks that can be used to help align the negative over the inkjet print on a light box.

:Niranjan

Addendum:
If you still want to do the way you described, I would think you don't necessarily need the same size paper as the negative. As long as your paper is square, you can place your image with left/top margins instead of centering. That would allow you to align paper and negative based on those two edges.

Thanks for the tips. I'll be trying and will report back.

You might want to take a look at Hahnemühle's Platinum Rag which apparently will handle Platinum/ Palladium over pigment well & is available in cut sheets in the sizes you want.