Coating Inkjet Giclee Canvas Prints - Matte vs. Photo Black Ink

We recently had a customer complain of issue with ink not being dry enough when they were finishing their inkjet canvas print with the Clearshield Type C Satin Inkjet Canvas Top Coating. The ink had been smudging on the surface of his print after finishing his Epson Exhibition Satin Canvas using ClearShield Satin as a varnish.

We decided to test our customer’s results by printing on our Epson Stylus Pro 7900 Printer, Epson Exhibition Canvas Satin with 1 giclee print using the Photo Black Ink and the other using the Matte Black Ink.

After a few hours we waited before coating our canvas print with Clearshield inkjet varnish top coat liquid laminate. If you take a look at the pictures of the coated Epson Exhibition Satin Canvas below, you will see our results.

Coated Inkjet Canvas Print using Photo Black Ink

Coated Inkjet Giclee Canvas Print using Matte Black Ink

Given the results in our print lab users can expect the same results when coating Epson Exhibition Satin Inkjet Canvas with Premier Eco Print Shield, Breathing Color, ClearStar ClearShield, Glamour II or LexJet Sunset liquid laminate canvas coatings.

Our Suggestions for Printing & Coating Exhibition Canvas Prints:

• When applying a coating to inkjet canvas it is very important to let your prints dry at least 12-14 hours post production. Your inkjet or solvent canvas print needs to be outgassed before coating, even though your print may feel dry to the touch.

• Given the results in our print lab we suggest using Matte Black Ink instead of Photo Black Ink when printing on Epson Exhibition Canvas (which includes Epson Exhibition Canvas Glossy, Matte & Satin.) Using Photo Black Ink on Inkjet Canvas seems to cause problems in creating streaking or smudging of the ink, ruining prints.