writing on photobooks/photographs

Hi,

I just printed a photobook through Adoramapix. It's meant for a birthday and I included a signature page for people at the party to sign. I'm don't have the photobook in my hands yet, but I'm wondering what markers/pens would write properly on photos/photobooks without bleeding or smudging (ie. fast drying). Since one signer's hand will almost certainly rub against the someone else's writing, I don't want the page to turn into one giant page of ink smudge. I don't want to ruin the book.

An alternative is to stick a sheet of transparent paper over the page and have people sign on that. Are there transparent/translucen​t papers that are good for these purposes?

Thanks for any assistance.

If you have something like a Hobby Lobby nearby, go to their scrap-booking section and look for a ZIG Photo Signature pen. It claims to be "Photo Safe, Permanent Ink, Fade Resistant, Water Resistant, Dries Quickly, Will not smear..."

Edit... And as I recall, it's only a couple of dollars.

Depends on the paper, but I have used fine point sharpies without problem.

Sharpies will work but they will smudge for about 5-7 seconds before the ink drys. Considering the drying time is so short, they usually don't present a problem. (I actually tested this out)

Intriguing. I will try some sharpies at home since I have a bunch of those already. I stopped by an art supply shop during lunch and tried their Micron archival pens. It worked great on regular paper, but on glossy paper, it still smudged after 30 seconds. I couldn't find the ZIG Photo Signature pen, but I'll try a few more places.

BTW, I'm in NYC, so if that helps in terms of a location to get these pens, it'd be great. I've tried Blick so far. Will probably try Pearl Paint.

You know I'd be leery of using glossy photo paper for this, but of course if that's what came with the book, the question would be are there alternative approaches? One would be to in some way paste/glue "regular" paper over the photo paper for the signature page(s)...?

At my day job, I did a Photobook from Adorama for a co-worker that was retiring, and did something similar to you with having signature pages. The book was done with the Kodak Luster paper and I was able to have people use a fine point sharpie to sign and had no problems at all. I did make sure there was a few seconds between people signing.

G-Darc wrote in post #14204053
At my day job, I did a Photobook from Adorama for a co-worker that was retiring, and did something similar to you with having signature pages. The book was done with the Kodak Luster paper and I was able to have people use a fine point sharpie to sign and had no problems at all. I did make sure there was a few seconds between people signing.

And I'd say that point in bold is important!

Awesome responses. Indeed, it was Kodak Luster paper. I wasn't sure if it was going to come out glossy or not. It's more matte than glossy. Good to know regular sharpies will work with time between signing.
Alternative was to use micron pens.
http://www.art-made-easy.com/images/pens-micron.jpg

I may also go with the idea of laying a paper on top. Perhaps a frosted translucent paper, like mylar.