UV spray a must for Canvas

I promise my last question on canvas printing, at least for a while..

Is it a must to uv spray a canvas print?

I've heard some stories of the coating cracking and going bad over time. I'm putting a few prints in a local resale gallery and I'm hesitant on spraying them. I noticed on one test print I did after spraying and letting it dry for 24 hours it curled up really bad as well.

Any thoughts are appreciated.

Thanks,
Kevin

For prints that will not be behind a UV coated glass or Plexiglas I always coat them with a UV spray. Using PremierArt's Print Shield I have never had a problem. No cracking, no yellowing, no curling, no flaking. PremierArt also makes several coatings that you can roll on that don't have all the noxious chemicals in them. I feel the coatings are necessary to increase the longevity of your print and to help protect the printed surface since these prints will not be behind glass.

http://www.premierimagingproducts.com/

Some of the print permanence ratings at Wilhelm Imaging Research show that using PremierArt Print Shield applied to various papers increases the print's longevity. There are many different coatings (and several of the sprays are in fact the same product with different badging/branding). Inkjetart sells a variety: http://www.inkjetart.com/cart/finishing-protective-coatings-c-823_824.html

Spraying your prints will make your blacks a little darker so if you are printing on canvas they might need to be a little darker anyway. Printing on canvas is different than printing on paper. Canvas comes out a little flatter and less saturated. The spray seems to add a little contrast. Most sprays do add some yellowing to the whites that is hardly noticable so I would try the one Phil is mentioning.

It is because, typically, canvas isn't put behind glass. The ratings you see for inkjet print longevity, assume the print is displayed 'properly'; that is, it's behind UV glass. With no glass to protect it, canvas needs to be coated.

In addition to the PremierArt products, Hahnemuhle and Moab make UV sprays.

The roll on coatings tend to accentuate colours and contrast, the sprays less so. I use the Moab and when it's wet colours pop a little more but when it dries the effect is basically gone.

Thanks guys.

I ordered some of the Print Shield, sounds like that should work much better than the current product I'm trying.

My only problem is I need to hang a couple of these in this gallery tomorrow night and I won't be able to spray them ahead of time. If you were in my shoes what would you do?

thanks for the help
Kevin

I have read online (don't know if its true or not) that the Hahnemuhle, Moab, and Print Shield sprays are all the same stuff but marketed by the respective companies. I have only used the Print Shield so I don't have any first hand experience with the other two.

I need to hang a couple of these in this gallery tomorrow night and I won't be able to spray them ahead of time. If you were in my shoes what would you do?

Hang 'em! Spray them later. How long will they be in the gallery? Will they get direct sunlight? Is the gallery open 7 days a week? If not can you retrieve them over a Sunday and spray them and re-hang them on Monday before the gallery opens?

Thanks Phillip. I wasn't sure if it was a bad idea to spray them after wrapping them.

I should be able to pull them down and spray them, that is as long as they don't sell during the opening weekend... I'm doubting they will.

Now there is a point. Do you spray before wrapping or not? Seems like if you sprayed first and let dry, it would have all sorts of possibilities to curl, crack, or have pressure stretches when wrapping. I assume when you say wrap you mean stretching the canvas around its mounting board. Seems like you would spray afterwards. If you didn't do that with your other product, then maybe that is why it is curling so bad. I have never done any canvas, but thought if I added this then someone who actually knows what they are doing would respond to my question!!! :)

Troup Nightingale

The newer sprays on the market are supposed to be designed not to curl or crack. I've stretched both before and after spraying and it didn't make a difference.

Kevin, presumably you've had them stretched by a shop or if you've done them yourself you're using proper stretcher frames or a homemade facsimile thereof? They're not just flat pieces of wood.