Hi Jonathan, First of all, we don't print on the area we stretch, we leave the printed edges so they slightly wrap 1/8" round the frame,
If you stretch with one positive pull, fold and staple, without folding backwards and forwards, you should not have any problems. We do spray first, one coat to protect from our fingerprints etc. I would also make sure that the environment in which you do it is quite warm, as the coating is more flexible when it is warm. I do not know if this applies also to the Epson canvas, but it is certainly worth a try. All inkjet canvasses are going to be stretched once printed, you would assume! If you want a matte finish, our experience is to put the initial coats on with gloss and then finish with matte. Our experience is that the matting agent in the coating has the effect of muting the colours and the print looks much less punchy (Bulldog anyway). As far as effecting the print, it does tend to give it more punch, but I have noticed no loss of detail, no shift of colour. Sharpness and contrast is affected if you use the matte first. We have heard really great things about Lumina Coatings, so you might want to look into that. They even offer to spray a sample for you, if you send them a test print. Anyway, hope this helps. Best regards, Ellie Jonathan Brown said: > What we were doing was to print onto canvas using a 9600 and then stretch > the finished canvas (unsealed, untreated with anything) onto wooden > stretchers. > > What we found was that the the image layer cracked badly when stretched > round the corners of the stretcher. Using rounded corners on the wooden > frame didn't help. The cracking was very localised and only appeared 3-4 > mm around the corners, but it was bloody ugly and really spoilt the >effect. Haven't tried the sealing approach; might be worth a punt. How badly does the laminate affect the image (sharpness, contrast, detail etc.) -- Ellie Kennard : Innovative Imaging Studio : http://www.iiStudio.com Contributor to Photoshop Restoration & Retouching (2nd edition) by Katrin Eismann =============================================================== GO TO http://www.prodig.org for ~ GUIDELINES ~ un/SUBSCRIBING ~ ITEMS for SALE
