> It is possible that some plastic films such as mylar come with a
> substance on their surface such as an oil or such. When testing plastic
> films one should know if there exists a surface other than the plastic
> itself and how to remove it.
I thought about this in my plastic substrate test, and tried washing the
transparency film with alcohol to remove oil, fingerprints, etc.. I have
also wondered about the surface finish. The mylar sheets that I have
been able to find in the local art supply stores have a frosted surface.
I pretty sure that this would hold the gelatine much better than the
smoother surface of the clear transparency material.
I had several reasons for wanting to try the plastic support. One being
greater dimensional stability, which I believe would be an advantage for
multiple printing (Some day, I'd like to try this.). Another would be
what Stefan Stecher hinted at. Namely the possibility of printing
directly through the plastic film. As far as that goes, I would suppose
that the plastic support could even be the negative. Perhaps one could
simply run a transparency through a dye printer to make a negative, coat
this, expose, develop, and transfer the image to the final support. A
plastic tissue support should also be reusable. I have wondered how well
it would separate from the transfered image though, since the water
wouldn't penetrate it.
- Wayde Allen