Hi All
I printed a photo for a coming exhibition on my Epson. I let the print dry for over 24 hours. Everything looked great so I matted and framed it... After a week I noticed a slight haze inside the glass. Never had this problem before. Inks are fresh and the paper is kept in the Epson package at room temp. Anyone have any insight to this problem?
This is an out gassing issue. You need to let the print sit longer before putting it under glass. The ink lets off a small amount of gas when drying ( curing ) which if covered by glass, will adhere to the glass causing a fogging.
This is what Epson has to say about it.................
Ink jet printer users may occasionally notice that an ink jet photo framed behind glass has fogged the inside of the glass surface. This fog, which may look like a ghost image, is a film caused by ink solvents that have not completely “cured.” This can happen on any “barrier” type paper using any type of ink from any manufacturer if you do not allow the print to properly dry before framing. A “barrier” paper is one with coatings designed to prevent ink from being absorbed completely into the paper, thus producing a brighter or glossier image (e.g. RC papers).
Because there has been some confusion about the causes and the solutions for this occurrence, we offer these steps to either prevent ghosting or fix the situation if your photos have already been affected. To accelerate the curing process and prevent the ghost image from forming on the glass, you can follow this drying procedure:
1. After printing, let the print rest for 15 minutes.
2. After 15 minutes, place a sheet of plain paper (not photo paper) on top of the print for 24 hours. The paper acts as a sponge to absorb the solvents and accelerate the outgassing. (You may stack the prints if you are printing more than one. Be sure to interleave each print with a sheet of plain paper.)
3. After 24 hours, remove the plain paper. You may notice the plain paper is wavy. If it is, repeat the procedure again with a new sheet of paper for another 24 hours, after which the print should be ready for framing. If it is not wavy, this indicates that the solvents in the print should now be completely dry and the print should be ready for framing immediately.
If you already have ghosting, simply remove and clean the glass, use the procedures outlined above to cure the image, and reframe the print.
It's the gas issue. After you print and it's dry cover the whole print with regular copy paper for a day or two and you will notice that the paper( copy paper) gets wavy from the gases.
