Archival Print Labels Project

This articles outlines the process I use to make archival labels for my prints using mostly photographic processes. The work involves taking digitally printed artwork, making a lith film negative and finally a label on photographic paper. 

Motivation

Over the years I have begun to label my prints. This is somewhere between vanity and pride I suppose and of course one is expected to sign one's work.

I have worked on imprint or 'brand' based on the inspiration I get from my deceased brother. Thus I have this idea of a studio we have together. This never happened in real life. He pursued his interest and career in photography while I pursued separate interests though we always discussed his interest and I have a couple of his photographs he gave me as gifts.

So the idea of a joint photography studio is a virtual concept in that our work was never contemporaneous. Since his death I inherited most of his negatives and over the years I have enjoyed printing and framing these as my interpretation of his work. I have self published a book on his work for family and friends. (It is referenced in the sidebar of this blog.)

I settled on the name Morse Brothers Studios abbreviated to Morse Bros Studios and often reference two locations, the UK and Arizona. Arizona was where my brother did his work. The UK is where my home is. I made a short blog where I explain in more detail the legacy and reprint entries from this blog more related to the topic of the studio.

Archival Label Making 

Getting to the point of this article; I have used a small label maker (from Brother no irony intended) to conveniently print labels for maintaining my film archive and also to label my work. I have evolved through a couple of different logo formats settling on a more modern format. I identify the the studio, who made the photo and who made the print and finally some thing about the paper and process. These I have printed on this label maker. I have always been conscious that they are very delicate and certainly not archival. The adhesive will probably make a mess at some point in the future and the printing is thermal. Thermal printing I don't think lasts very long and certainly fades with heat.

The labels have served their purpose but I have always kept in the back of my head a dissatisfaction. I have always thought during this time that a better solution would be to make these labels on photographic paper. This way they have the exactly identical archival qualities. Recently I have been printing using MG ART 300 paper from Ilford. It is 100% rag paper from the German art paper maker Hahnemühle. It has a coarse texture much like watercolor paper. This means it takes well to writing on with a pencil; indeed some people who like to hand color photos with color pencils swear by this paper. This lead me to think this would be ideal for blank labels with specific details filled in by hand.

I have experimented with printing text and graphics on photo paper when I bound a small book for my father. It is based almost entirely on photographic processes so it satisfies the darkroom urge though it does start with digital printing. I outline the process here.

The Process

First for this work I start with printed copy. This exercise is not aimed at gray-scale work just pure black and pure white is the result I am striving for. If gray scale is required different materials will be needed.

The basic steps are

• Print source graphic on paper (positive)
• Contact print to lith film (negative)
• Develop, fix, wash, and dry lith film 
• Contact print to photo paper of choice (positive)
• Develop, fix, wash, and dry photo-paper
• Archival wash and tone (optional)

Graphic Source

I have used an ink-jet printer before and this works fine. I would recommend thicker paper than the thinnest available. I have tried this with a laser printed image but the paper was so thin the pattern of paper fibers printed through, also the black printed areas showed banding and this telegraphed through the result as well. What you are looking for is consistent blacks and whites. It helps if the black is dense but consistency is more important. It helps if the white areas are more translucent than opaque. Indeed printing on a clear base would be a big help. Alas I have had inconsistent results ink-jet printing to transparency material.

I started with my thermal printed label as it has deep blacks and consistent whites and I wanted to reproduce the original art work. My label printer has a mirror setting so I can make a reversed images for contact printing. Since it is a label and the label has graphics that will print through I paste the label to a small sheet of clean glass. This makes the contact printing easier as I am only registering the glass and the lith film. I start with one image as I will be making test strips for each stage.

Test label adhered to glass. Note it is mirrored as the label will be pressed directly to the lith film.

I have found it is very difficult to get thin lines to make it consistently through the process. The original image had 1pt with lines (1/72", .35 mm) and these reproduced poorly. I had much better success on 2.25pt lines. Portions of text with small strokes or serifs will suffer as well.

Lith Negative

Lith film is a photosensitive clear film that is much cheaper then photographic film. It is orthographic so it can be worked under a normal red safelight. It is very high contrast if developed in normal developer. (There are means to get continuous tone out of lith film but that is not my objective for this.) It is used just like photographic paper in the darkroom.

To print through the label and again the lith film to get the final image I will need to go for high contrast materials and processes. These will then compensate for the variation within both the white and black sections of the original image. There will inevitably be some pattern or variation in each area that would show up on a gray-scale print. The high contrast of the lith film properly exposed and developed will drive the separation further apart.

I make a test strip by sandwiching the label-glass sheet with the label contacting directly with the lith film emulsion. This should give the sharpest image. I use my enlarger as a light source (no negative installed) and set the height to cover a large enough area. I plan to make an 8x10 sheet in the end so I made sure the enlarger projects at least that large an area even though the test strips are much smaller.

I then set the aperture as a guess and have no filter in the way. I run my normal test-strip intervals of 8, 11, 16, 22, 32, 45, 64 seconds. Then develop, stop, fix, and wash the lith film as with normal photo paper. You should note the enlarger height at this point so you a have reference point for the next time.

My first test had too much exposure. (f4)

The first test was at f4 but it was far too much exposure. Looking at the lightest section I wanted to move it at least 3 stops as my test strip has a 3 stop range from 8 to 64 seconds in half stop intervals. I chose f16.

This is the right range. (f16)

If I have guessed right I should find a couple areas where the film shows dark blacks and clear transparent areas. I look carefully at thin lines and the smaller text. Too much light will cause the thin lines to close up or the small text to look bleedy or blotchy. I pick the time that gets me sharpest definition even if the blacks may not be solid.

In the above example the exposures are 8, 11, 16, 22, 32, 45, 64 seconds. The range of 16-22 give the right balance of black with the thin text and lines still visible. At the first two exposures the paper fiber and adhesive print through as variations in the tone. Stronger exposure reduces this and the next printing step will remove it entirely.

The next step will deepen the blacks and this additional contact printing will render lower definition. For me the lith film was best exposed at f16 for about 16 seconds.

I then make a full contact print of the label on fresh lith. I again develop this and inspect to make sure it looks uniformly good. I might adjust my exposure again by a quarter stop if needed and repeat on a new lith film print.

Full contact lith film print at 16 seconds. 

Paper Label

Once I have a nice piece of lith film with a clear negative of my label I then make a contact test print on my target photo paper. Again emulsion against emulsion and the image should appear normal and readable at this point.

I use variable contrast paper and this exposure is made with a #5 high contrast filter. This second high contrast step should eliminate any areas that are not completely white or black. Again develop stop fix and wash and dry and inspect as before. Once you decide on the best time make another contact print on the paper for the desired exposure time to see the whole label. Hopefully now there is a satisfactory result. (For me this step was #5 filter at 11 seconds at f5.6.) (When making a contact print remember to use a sheet of glass to compress the lith film onto the paper and flatten it all out. Otherwise you will get blurry and occluded graphics.)

Example test print on paper same time intervals as before. This was an early version where the lines were printed too small at 1pt. Later I moved to 2.25pt which is what all the other images on this article are taken from. 

Note how as the exposure increases from right to left the print gets bolder until it loses definition. It is also possible to note that despite the lith film not having pure black the high contrast filter as kept these areas white rather than gray.

The above steps have allowed me to dial in each exposure for each step and so I have a formula as I anticipate coming back to this later to make more. Things to note

Lith Print

• Enlarger height (16cm)
• Bulb wattage (if you change this) (150w)
• Any Neutral Density or other filters in place (None)
• Aperture (f16)
• Exposure time. (16 seconds)
• Ev reading (7.5)

Paper Print (Changed Parameters)

• Contrast filter (#5)
• Aperture (f5.6)
• Exposure time. (11 seconds)
• Ev reading (7.5)

Mass Production

My next step is to make an 8x10 lith print negative so I can contact print an entire sheet of paper at once. My first attempt was to use the same small glass plate with the single label on it and step it around the 8x10 sheet of lith film and mask off the rest of the a paper. My label size fits only 6 instances on the sheet.

Once I completed this and developed the result the weakness of the approach was apparent. Because the paper was mounted to the small glass plate the glass when exposed to light transmitted the light to the edge of the glass and this got projected onto the adjacent images ruining them.

My next more successful approach was to take a larger sheet of glass and then print two labels on one strip and make three strips and arrange them one strip below the other across the 8x10 width on the glass. I then  contact print an entire sheet of lith film as show below.

The Master Lith Sheet

Next I contact print this on my paper of choice in this case Ilford MG ART 300 paper using the exposure parameters described above. (Discussed at the top of the article.) Shown below the black and white separation is sharp and the lines and small text are well defined. I archivally washed and selenium toned these then dried them on my print drying apparatus. They are now ready to be cut apart and the print details written on them before pasting to a print or picture frame.

Final Paper Version

Example Finished Label

I can now print the entire lith film sheet in one exposure. Once developed and dried the lith sheet is ready to print a whole sheet of labels. I can then cut these apart and paste them to the back of prints or framed prints as I see fit. Being on paper base I should be able to use a pencil to enter the relevant data. So long as I paste them using archival adhesives the whole setup should last a long time.