16" x 20" Print Drying and Flattening

Probably the biggest hassle of printing on fiber-based paper is how to flatten a print. I went through this conundrum a number of years ago and settled on something that works for me. I started with an 8x10 version and then made a 12x16 version. This method was adopted by at least one commercial outfit Cahute who is doing portraits (though I get flat prints in about a day not two).

Cahute also uses two sheets of acrylic with the print clamped between them after drying for storage until they are mounted. This is a nice extra as despite the best efforts the differential absorption of moisture between the emulsion and the paper back means there is a tendency for the print to slightly curl over time. Without this technique I have not had a problem mounting the prints however.

As for drying time I find that it usually takes an all day session before I have one print I am happy with. If I expect to have to dry more than one I make more setups like this. They are relatively cheap compare to dry mount presses especially in this size.

Finally I decided I needed a 16x20 one as well as I have started printing that size more frequently.

I opted to follow much the same method however I decided to use a piece of plywood as the base. I have the tools to cut it to the right dimension. The use of acrylic allowed anyone to order to the proper dimensions and thus not need any tools and no waterproofing is needed either. This could still be done in this case.

I allowed for 1 inch clamp blocks all around so I cut the plywood to 18" x 22". After I cut the plywood I sanded it, cleaned it then gave it two coats of polyurethane to waterproof it.

Plywood cut to dimensions and coated with polyurethane.

For clamps I found I could reuse the acrylic ones from before. For the 16" dimension I reused the clamp blocks from my 12x16 setup. The 20" dimension fits well using one short and one long from the 8x10 setup (lucky me!).