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Caring For Your Giclée Art Print
- When unpackaging your print, be sure to remove all tape. You wouldn’t want it to accidentally stick itself to your print and damage the paper.
- Handle by the edges and use two hands to support. The oils from you hands can affect the paper, reducing the archival qualities. Fingerprints will leave a sheen on darker print areas.
- Do not wipe off dust with your hands. The surface and the ink can easily be scratched. Use a clean lint-free soft cloth. Do not rub. Dust lightly to avoid scratching the image.
- Be gentle. Fine art papers are fibrous. If you rub your print, it will scuff, and the ink on the surface can scratch off.
- Keep it moisture and condensation free. Although the ink is somewhat water resistant, water can still cause damage. Prints will suffer if hung in kitchens or bathrooms, generally anywhere with a lot of steam. There are many ways around this including hermetically sealing the frames.
- When framing, use only archival (acid-free) supplies. Giclée prints are printed on acid free paper and have a light fastness of 90+ years in normal lighting conditions. So materials placed directly on the print paper should also be acid free. Similarly, the backing barrier should also be acid free. The print should never be glued down or dry mounted. Any adhesive tapes stuck to the back of the print should also be acid free.
- Do not use the packaging it came in to store your print. The materials your print was packaged in are not archival. They aren’t meant for long term storage. However, the clear plastic sleeves used are archival.
- Do not store or exhibit your print in direct sunlight or in a setting that has chemical gassing (freshly painted walls or other fumes). Although the print is archival and highly pigmented, sunlight will inevitably fade the colors. Giclée prints use pigments rather than dyes and the papers are specially coated giving them additional longevity. However, care should be taken in hanging them. It is also advised to hang framed prints away from heat sources such as radiators, open fires and away from damp stone outer walls.