Beginner Problems

[bronzeo]

How do train your photo prints to flatten after they come off of the printer? Mine just want to continually curl up. They are also curling in the printer to the point that the printer head bar scratches them after inking...actually, I think it is the dryer bar. In this case I think it is old paper stock or paper that has been in a fire or hot place. Even though it is one of HP best photo papers, it is not very white, the box had been opened and it doesn't want to flatten out at all. I purchased the roll from an ebay seller.

My clearcoat finish pin holed over the heavy inked area of my aqueous based print. This is surely outgassing that will let up soon. Is there a way to force the cure times, or is there a known window of time needed to wait? The outgassing occured at about 12 hours post printing on the darker areas about 5 minutes after it was sprayed.

Thanks for any solutions on these, Jack

 

[Haystack]

I'm a beginner also, and don't have much expertise here, but I've been struggling with similar issues. Curling is caused by the expansion of the paper fibers when the media becomes saturated with ink; it seems to be par for the course when dealing with thinner paper stocks. I find that an ordinary hair dryer works remarkably well at removing any wrinkles that are present when the print comes out. As for general curling, some people consider a mounting press to be essential equipment. I compete against people who ship their prints in tubes, so if my prints (shipped flat) have slight curling I don't worry about it too much. My impression, as a total n00b here, is that if flatness is really important to you, you should either own a mounting press or use a thicker, fine art paper. Reducing the ink density may solve the problem, but it sacrifices image quality.

I'm interested in any techniques you might discover.