Ilford museum board changed, glossy gone?

[wparsonsgisnet]

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I posted in the old Forum about making a child's book using Ilford museum board.

My process was to print a picture on one side and the part of the story that referred to the next picture on the back side. I noted that the print ran some on the back of the glossy board, but worked fine on the back of the pearl board. I also said I planned to precut the pages before printing on the second pass.

 

Well, DON'T precut the board. At least with my Epson 2200, the printer moves the board back and forth about a million times before printing. When I tried to use precut (6x8 inch) board, it got misaligned before the printing started. So:

 

1. Always use the full board for printing. This means figuring out what all the top and left margin displacements have to be for each picture. Due to the cost of this medium: "Measure twice; print once," to paraphrase an old saying about cutting lumber.

 

I just discovered that the back of the pearl board now won't take any ink at all! It doesn't just smear, tho it does still get on the little wheels and make tracks down the paper. The ink now just beads on top of the back side and runs together. So:

 

2. It is no longer possible to print on the back side of this museum board. I have had to revert to printing on sticky labels and attaching them to the back side.

 

And -- what may not be good news for users of this medium -- if you go to the Ilford home page, the premount museum board is NOT displayed as a product. I am also told by Atlantic Exchange (and if you are not ordering from them you may be paying more than you need to for inkjet supplies) that the glossy surface has been discontinued. So:

 

3. The product has changed, the home page does not display this set of products, and some of it may no longer be available.

 

Nothing says the same except change (it sounds better in the French).

 

This was my first post in the new forum. Hiya, Bill

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[wparsonsgisnet]

Just an update ---

Yesterday, my granddaughter received the book I made and has requested numerous readings of it. So, in spite of the frustrations with learning to use the museum board medium and with the changes to the back side of the board (on which the Epson 2200 at least will no longer print properly), this project can be termed a success. (We won't count the 100 or so hours it took to get to this point.)

Bill