printing your own prints (drying prints)

I had to print a large batch of prints. Paper was Red River Ultra Pro Satin 2.0.

While printing, I noticed in the instructions:

I ran out of places to lay prints. Then it occured to me that big labs like Mpix or Adorama don't do this. To do so, they would need a warehouse the size of 5 football fields.

So what do the big labs do? How long before they stack prints and/or roll them up in a tube to ship? Is "curing" really necessary?

IIRC, the main thing is to not put them under glass for 24 hours. Hopefully, someone else will chime in that knows more.

What surprised me is that if you read those instructions, they say to protect them "... from moving air..." while they set. Cover them with copy paper or put them in bags? Come on, ain't a pro lab in the world going to go thru all that!

Picture North Carolina wrote in post #12353353
What surprised me is that if you read those instructions, they say to protect them "... from moving air..." while they set. Cover them with copy paper or put them in bags? Come on, ain't a pro lab in the world going to go thru all that!

I know zilch about pro labs, but I always assumed they have an accelerated drying process.

The instructions you quoted are for inkjet printing with dye based inks, which isn't what most big labs use.

The plastic bag advice seems a bit extreme to me, although it is well known that it's the atmosphere gases which make the dye ink fade - more than sunlight, actually. For that reason I let my prints dry inside a closed up cupboard.

The use of copy paper I have seen suggested before, but that was to allow prints to dry when stacked up.

Bottom line: be happy. My favorite HP "swellable polymer" paper takes two days to render the final picture look and 7 days to get dry enough to be put under glass.

(And yes, my printing is low-volume.)

Yep, although some specialist labs use industrial strength inkjets, large volume labs print on light sensitive silver-halide photographic paper, just like the old days, except that instead of the whole image being projected onto the paper it's scanned on line-by-line by a moving laser.