Re: Damaged prints - US Postal Service - Prevention

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Larry:
My first trip would be to the Postmaster and explain the problem. Also
ask the very specific questions here. It would be interesting to hear
his thoughts on the subject. I have seen news reports of envelopes being
sent through these sorters and they seem to be traveling at very high
speeds. Your idea of pressure may not be too far off base. It may be a
combination of both heat and pressure. Did you look at the inside of the
envelope to see if the ink transferred to the envelope?

Jim Davis
mailto:jarthurdavis@earthlink.net

Larry Gustafson wrote:
> 
> This Christmas, delighting in the possibilities of my Epson 1200, I decided
> to make my own Christmas cards.  I printed about 100 Christmas cards from a
> drum-scanned 4x5 negative, using the Epson 1200 and Epson ink.  I printed
> on Red River scored card stock (58 lb Denali Matte-Coated) using a standard
> Epson quadtone curve.  The images were stunning.
> 
> A few weeks later  the postal service returned some of my cards because of
> out-of-date addresses.  I opened the envelopes with the idea or sending the
> cards back out to correct addresses and saw, to my surprise, that the
> images were completely trashed.  They looked diseased with white blotches
> all over the image.  It was like a white algae had formed on them.  At
> first I thought the cards had gotten wet in the mail, but I had cards from
> different parts of the country with the same problem.
> 
> On further investigation, it appeared that there was a pattern to the
> blotches.  I looked at the outside of the envelopes and could see the same
> pattern.  Where a dirty line had been formed on the outside of the
> envelope, through some pressure roller in a postal machine, I could see the
> same line formed by blotches on the image.  When I put the card back into
> the envelope the marks on the envelope matched up with the blotches on the
> image.  Apparently, the postal machine that cancels the stamp or puts the
> little bar codes on the envelope applies so much pressure to the envelope
> it rubs off parts of the image inside.
> 
> I'm going to do some experiments by mailing cards to myself to see if I can
> stop this from happening in the future.  I would appreciate any comments or
> suggestions.  Would a clear acrylic spray protect the image?  Would a sheet
> of tissue paper over the image inside the envelope help?  Perhaps a card
> insert between the image and the envelope?  I  appreciate any suggestions.
> I'll let you know the results of my experiment.
> 
> Larry Gustafson
> gustafsl@ix.netcom.com
> 
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