How durable are photographic canvas prints to moisture and humidity?

Question

I want to put photographic canvas prints on stretcher frames in my bathroom, how bad of an idea is this? Obviously it depends on how wet my bathroom is, but I would call it fairly typical, and it does have a fan that pulls air out and two doors. The canvas prints are typical of what you could get from mpix, prodpi, whcc, or canvas on demand.

My main question is around bonded canvas prints and durability.

Answer

Most canvas prints use inks similar to (or actually are) big name inkjet inks like Epson and Canon. Such inks are susceptible to moisture and gaseous toxins and the like. Its kind of tough to generalize the print so much...all of the print houses you've listed use different kinds of canvas and different kinds of inks, and none of them really clearly specify what those inks are or how long they will last (a couple seem to indicate 100+ years, but don't specify under what conditions you might get such a lifetime.)

While you may not notice any change in the short term (i.e. a few years), hanging any canvas print that is printed with anything outside of modern Giclee inks (which are incredibly durable and excellent for canvas) will most likely not have a particularly long lifetime...I would say at most a couple decades, and after a number of years you'll likely start to see some fading or color shift. Only under archival conditions, wherein humidity and air quality and light are all controlled within a specific range, can you hope to achieve 100-200 year longevity.

You might also want to consider a clear protective spray. There are a variety of them available, and I am not sure if some are better suited to canvas prints or not. Usually you just need to evenly spray on a coat of this stuff once a print has fully cured (usually a full day, so if you send it off to a lab it should be cured by the time it gets to you). The spray should give your canvas prints much greater durability in a bathroom environment. It should protect from direct water exposure (splashing from sink or shower), and help protect a bit longer from fading.

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What kind of containers are effective for ~20 year storage?

Question

Occasionally, I print large photos (20x30). What kind of container should I use if I want them to last approximately 20 years?

Note: Assume I am not concerned about fire.

Answer

Archival cardboard storage boxes ought to do the trick. They may be difficult to find in your size at a photo store (even B&H only has them up to 20x24-1/2"), but you should be able to get them at any large artists' materials shop (perhaps as a special order) or online through a museum supplier. If worse comes to worst, you can construct the boxes from thick (at least 4-ply) archival mounting board and metal box corners.

You'll also need archival low-abrasion separation sheets (like glassene, but acid-free) between the prints. A double layer of separators -- a slick sheet on the print surface, and a more absorbant, thicker paper between the slick sheet and the back of the next print -- would be better.

The cardboard and the thicker separation sheets will moderate humidity. The box will keep out the light. Using archival materials means you won't have to worry about acid damage from the container or any outgassing that may negatively affect the paper, coatings or pigments. That about covers the requirements -- and your prints should last significantly longer than twenty years under those conditions.

Both plastic and metal containers can be problematic. Some plastics are safe, but it's hard to find safe containers in the size you need, and next to impossible to build 'em if you can't buy 'em. Metals can corrode silently. They may be useful as outer containers for protection from physical damage, but you should still be using cardboard inner containers to prevent direct contact with the metal.

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How can I preserve/protect existing framed prints from fading?

Question

I have some prints that were printed and framed professionally, and now they are situated in a relatively bright room, and I am concerned that they will fade in the light.

I have heard that there exists UV protection in the form of 'spray on glass', but searches online seem to only come up with research products that have not made it to market yet.

Ideally I am looking for something that I can apply to the frame that is invisible rather than on the prints themselves — some kind of plastic coating or spray-on thing.

Answer

The best and most common form of protection from fading would be the selection of UV glass or acrylic. Any framing store will have these options available at multiple price points with trade offs such as glare or less glare, scratch resistant or scratch prone, and tint(green) or no tint.

Specifically you are asking for a form of UV protection that is spray on, and this type of protection does exist, I would try Krylon UV Resistant Clear Coating Spray.

This product is made for use on artwork that is either outside or near windows. They offer the product in gloss and matte finish as well. Krylon is a very well respected brand, and I believe this will be the easiest and cheapest solution to the problem, albeit not necessarily the best.

Another spray on option would be Premier Imaging Products Print Shield. It is a lacquer based protective spray that is designed for inkjet prints. It also works on photo papers and canvas materials. They specify up to a 2x lightfastness increase, elimination of gloss differential, non yellowing formula, and a reduction in scuffing. The results have been tested by an independent lab (Wilhelm Research) to last up to 166 years with certain Epson papers and regular glass, and over 200 years with UV filtering glass.

As with any products like this I would suggest testing them out on a test print before you go and use them on your framed and mounted originals.

Above I have given you a few different options, to sum them up I will list the following options-

• UV Filtering Glass
• UV Filtering Acrylic
• Krylon UV Resistant Clear Coating Spray
• Premier Imaging Products Print Shield
• Picture Shields inserts (not described here, but link here)

To get down to the root of your issue, it sounds like you want to try to add UV protection without disassembling your professional framed and matted prints. Many professionally framed prints will be finished in the back, such that you have to open them up to do any type of glass exchange or sprays. I would not attempt to spray the exterior glass without first removing the glass. It just does not sound like a good idea to me, and you will probably end up with lines from the tape, or worse - over spray on the frame.

Furthermore, application of a spray type UV protection can be quite difficult to do in a uniform and smooth fashion. You may consider having the images professionally reproduced(scanned) prior to the application in case you are not satisfied after some time. You also might just be better off with the addition of UV filtering glass, keeping the image unaltered.

Beyond the scope of just using UV filtering vehicles, you will want to understand how prints get UV light, and other ways that prints are damaged over time.

UV light rays occur not only in natural light from the sun, but also in smaller quantities from indoor lighting sources. Florescent lighting is especially prone to outputting harmful UV rays, so if possible limit this type of lighting near the photos you are displaying. You will want to keep frames away from heat sources like fireplaces or central heating vents, because this type of added heat can cause premature aging of the photos as well.

It is important to note that UV protection will not eliminate fading, it will only limit the amount of harmful UV rays that will contact the photo. Other factors can contribute to fading, such as pollution, humidity, heat, and the paper that was chosen for the print and surrounding matting.

Another benefit to choosing UV filtering glass is that many reflections are often removed by this process, providing a better viewing experience.

Overall, I think you have quite a few options at your disposal. Realistically, in today's digital world, if you created the images, hold on to your RAW and/or high quality JPEG files and you can reprint if needed. If you didn't create the images or you do not have the originals, you have many options that are tested and work very well. Light is the print's enemy, so you could consider moving the prints to a darker room, getting better blinds or drapes, or even rotating them out seasonally to the closet.

For very detailed information you might find the ISO specification ISO 18902 useful.

A source I found, that reads mostly like an advertisement for a product, but seems to have useful information anyways: Here

I also found an interesting first hand account with some of the products listed above here.

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Is blu-ray a good long term storage option for photos?

Question

I am wondering if long term storage on blu-ray discs is a good idea or not for photos. Do professional shops that want long term storage use magnetic drives or blu-ray discs? Is there a reason not to use blu-ray discs for photography? Would accessing photos off of a blu-ray disc be faster or the same(i.e. slow) as a DVD? Is this question and its answers identical if I was asking about DVDs?

Answer

The simple fact of the matter is that we don't know how good writable Blu-Ray discs are yet -- there isn't sufficient data to say whether or not they'll stand the test of time. Accelerated aging tests can only get you so far. They certainly make a degree of practical sense in terms of cost, shipping, and so forth, but as a long-term solution, right now, you would have to be willing to engage in a rigorous program of periodic disc duplication in order to stave off any potential "bit rot". At least until the medium is proven, or its archival qualities are properly understood. (And I's stick to single-layer, since clouding -- obstructing the deeper layer -- is one of the more probable failure modes.)

Of course, the same can be said for any digital storage medium. Magnetic domains aren't forever either, so periodic rewriting is essential. Then there's always the question of long-term readability -- there was a time when ZIP disks and magneto-optical storage sounded like a good idea, but now we have the problem of sourcing readers for those disks. How long will it be before it becomes the next best thing to impossible to find an interface for an EIDE/PATA hard drive? SCSI? When will SATA be superceded? Or USB? Even file formats change over time, so there's no real guarantee than twenty years down the road your files will still be readable (this will be less of a problem for well-entrenched formats like JPEG or TIFF than with any proprietary format, but you never know).

The advantage to magnetic storage is that the storage capacity of individual drives is much larger than optical disks, so when you need to re-archive (and you will need to) there's a lot less donkey work involved in the process. I'd much rather swap 1TB hard drives than 25GB optical discs any day.

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