Jon Cone’s Inkjet Mall recently introduced Firefly Invisible Ink, an inkiest designed for viewing prints under black light only.

“Firefly™ ink is a sophisticated encapsulated dye ink that is invisible in ordinary daylight. Turn off the lights and expose with a black light and the color is vibrant and life-like. We make Firefly inks in cyan, lt cyan, magenta, lt magenta, yellow and white. Because the inks are invisible and require UV light in order to be seen, images must be printed in a false color in order to appear normal under black light. We produced Firefly™ ink Image Converter software so you do not need to experiment. You can open an image, convert it and save it as jpg or png file to print in any software of your choosing. We also put in some expert tools for those who wish to experiment.”

Kudos for innovation.
All bets are off on longevity.

Learn more about Firefly Invisible Ink here.

Learn more with my online digital printing resources.

Learn more in my digital printing workshops.

Category: Media, Printing
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How do you reduce forgery? One way is to issue certificates of authenticity. The artist issues a certificate of authenticity with the artwork. There are many ways to handle this. The artist can give the certificate to the client. The artist can keep the certificate on file for clients. Or, the artist can give one to a client and keep a duplicate. Ultimately a certificate can be forged. But holographic seals can’t. The Hahnemühle Certificate of Authenticity (certificates and holographic seals) was designed to help reduce the risk of forgery.

There are many steps you can take to reduce forgery.

1 Share digital files only with trusted sources and post low resolution files to the web

2 Insert copyright information in the file (as a layer, in the file info fields, in metadata).

3 Sign and number all prints(even if issued in an open/unlimited edition). Sign only saleable prints.

4 Keep good records of sales.

5 Note provenance (production history) on the back side of prints.

6 Use certificates and seals.

What other steps do you/could you take to ensure authenticity? Comment here!

Learn this and other tips and techniques in my Fine Digital Print workshops series.

Category: Media, Printing
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Finding the side of a paper that’s optimized for printing can sometimes be challenging. Here are a few tips to help.

1 Look for the logo – the logo is always on the back.
2 Compare whites – the coated side is often whiter.
3 Feel the surface – the coated side is smoother.
4 Lick the paper – the coated side sticks more.
5 Feel the edge – paper is cut coated side up leaving a tiny lip/edge on the back side.

If you have other tips for finding the coated side of paper, comment here!

Learn this and other tips and techniques in my Fine Digital Print workshops series.

Category: Media, Printing
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