Glassless frames and canvas prints

Thanks so much for your gracious reply. I'm going to give it a try!

Bruce Norikane said:

It depends on the risks you are willing to take. No one knows absolutely how long inkjet prints will last, but best conservation practices give you the best odds. The ability to replace the print is the very best protection.

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What if your prints are not made with an inkjet printer? I have been getting 12x18" prints made with a dry develop mini-lab. I mount them on wooden artboards.

MediaArchivist said:

Bruce Norikane said:

It depends on the risks you are willing to take. No one knows absolutely how long inkjet prints will last, but best conservation practices give you the best odds. The ability to replace the print is the very best protection.

Click to expand...

What if your prints are not made with an inkjet printer? I have been getting 12x18" prints made with a dry develop mini-lab. I mount them on wooden artboards.

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Want a roXplosion!?

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Is this the Fuji Dry Lab?

The Fuji Frontier DL and DX Dry MiniLabs are inkjets. Fuji developed special papers and Vividia inks for them. I don't know anything about the fading or abrasion resistance of these inks. Any conservation guidelines would have to come from Fuji. They used to write quite a bit about the archival properties of their photo products like Fuji Crystal Archive paper, but I see nothing about Vividia.

Ask your lab, they should have some info on their media and suggestions on framing.

Everything that I've done is with Epson pigment inks, and there's a lot of info on the resistance of these inks to typical hazards like light and ozone.

This is the system I use:

Photo process mini-lab

That's a wet lab and uses standard negative photo paper, RA4 wet chemistry. Should have excellent image quality and archival properties as long as the chemistry is well maintained. It is an industry standard mini-lab, it's up your particular service provider what chemistry and papers they use, and how well they maintain it. Your lab probably uses Kodak or Fuji paper and chemistry. There are some differences, but they're all pretty good to excellent, as long as they are properly maintained.

All these things will affect the longevity and durability of your prints, but generally speaking, silver halide photo papers have excellent archival properties.