A good idea, or not?
I usually exhibit my work as glossy, deeply-saturated metal prints reminiscent of Cibachromes, but, having easy access to HP and Canon large-format printers, I'm wondering if I can achieve a similar effect with inkjet prints and take advantage of their wider gamut, greater permanence and sharper output, by laminating them with high-gloss film laminate to achieve the gloss.
Has anyone done this? Which papers work best? I'm looking for papers without optical brighteners and with good archival characteristics, which tends to rule out most glossy papers (does a high-gloss laminate on a matte or lustre print give you a high-gloss end product?), but I'd imagine textured papers don't hold a laminate too well, and matte papers have a tendency to dent and deform if you so much as press a finger to them (does a 30-micron polyester laminate change this?). I like the look of Museo Silver Rag and Canson Platine Rag, but am unsure if the microtexture on these papers lends itself well to taking a laminate in the first place, or developing a high-gloss effect with the laminate (even though the current Silver Rag is quite glossy in its own right).
Or should I be looking at liquid or spray laminates instead? (I'm not even sure the lab to which I have cheap access even does liquid, as opposed to spray laminates)
I will be mounting these to aluminium or Dibond and displaying them without a frame or glass, so physical durability also matters.
