Can an inkjet printer make silver gelatin prints, and is there a workaround?
Asked 9/3/2018
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I want to make 8x10 silver gelatin prints using an inkjet or deskjet printer. Is that possible directly, or do I need a different process? If not, what workaround can I use to create a silver gelatin-style print from a digital image?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
8y ago
2 Answers
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Silver gelatin prints can only be made on paper that is photosensitive. Such papers are exposed by light, either shining through a negative or projected by a light emitting digital printer. Just like film, photosensitive papers must be protected from ambient light until their chemistry has been "fixed" following the exposure that burns the image into the light sensitive emulsion coating the paper.
If you tried to use photosensitive paper with an inkjet printer, the unfixed silver gelatin emulsion on the surface of the paper would turn dark by being exposed to light before being chemically processed.
Inkjet printers spray inks, dyes, or pigments onto non-photosensitive papers. The inks are absorbed by layers on the surface of the paper. These layers are not photosensitive. If they were, you couldn't open a pack of inkjet paper in a room with any light sources illuminating it or it would fog the paper in the same way that film is fogged if you open the back of a camera while the film is loaded.
Originally by user15871. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user15871
8y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
Not directly. Inkjet and silver gelatin printing are different processes.
Silver gelatin paper is light-sensitive photographic paper that must be exposed in controlled light and then chemically developed and fixed. An inkjet printer sprays dye or pigment ink onto non-light-sensitive paper, so it cannot print directly onto silver gelatin paper.
A workable hybrid method is to make a digital negative: invert your image, print it at 8x10 on transparent film with an inkjet printer, then place that transparency in contact with silver gelatin photo paper in a darkroom, cover it with glass, expose it to light, and develop the paper. That produces a contact print.
If you want true silver gelatin output without doing darkroom work yourself, you would need a specialist photographic printing service rather than a standard inkjet printer.
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