sizing paper for inkjet printing

[Ray Heath]

what do you all think about gelatin sizing of water colour paper for inkjet printing?
has anyone tried it?
would it work?

 

[wiz]

I've never tried gelatin sizing for an inkjet print.

Normally, I buy good coated papers, like Arches Infinity (basically, classic arches hot press and cold press with a factory applied coating).

Sometimes I run regular ink jet papers under control of a RIP that lets me run outrageously high ink limits, say 400% (amazing what you can do with the right software) and get pretty good results, very reminiscent of an actual watercolor.

If I were to try to coat my own, I'd be more likely to try an ink receptive coating like "ink aid" than plain gelatin.

And even more lik

 

[Ray Heath]

thnx for the post wiz, you've raised a further questions for me

what is a RIP?

what is "ink aid"?

why would you need 'outrageously high ink limits'?

what is 'lik'?

 

[wiz]

thnx for the post wiz, you've raised a further questions for me

what is a RIP?

It stands for "Raster Image Processor", a program that lets you control the amount of ink laid down by the printer in a way that you can't do with the conventional printer drivers. "QuadTone RIP" is an inexpensive ($50) program that can do this.

what is "ink aid"?

Take 6 Epson ink cartridges and a pound of sugar. Squeeze the ink cartridges into a pitcher and mix with water and sugar...

Actually "Ink Aid" is a coating that you can apply to uncoated paper (watercolor paper, rice paper, paper bags, you name it) cloth from silk to canvas, sheets of aluminum, etc...

It comes in white and clear. Cool stuff.

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why would you need 'outrageously high ink limits'?

Because without a coating, watercolor paper absorbs enormous amounts of ink, so it takes 2-4x the normal amount to get nice dense colors. Otherwise, the results look like a pastel drawing.

what is 'lik'?

The remains of a line I was typing, but abandoned. Part of the word "likely"