Author Topic: Poster conditions?  (Read 2189 times)

Online bigmike

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Poster conditions?
« on: July 01, 2017, 08:29:29 AM »
What exactly is it that causes a poster/paper to deteriorate? For example,I have two Italian posters from the 70s. One is in great shape, meanwhile the other is so brittle that it can hardly be unfolded without it tearing/falling apart. Is it the paper itself or the conditions it's stored in? Why is it that one is so brittle, yet the other one is fine? If it's the paper itself, is microchamber required for storage to prevent the paper from becoming brittle like that? Or is it just the conditions(heat/humidity) that must be controlled? If I can control the poster under the proper conditions, is it still necessary to provide for example microchamber paper as well to prevent it from deteriorating?

Offline oldposterho

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Re: Poster conditions?
« Reply #1 on: July 01, 2017, 09:26:38 AM »
I think it's a little from Column A and a little from Column B.  The paper 'formula' definitely has a lot to do with it and I suspect industrial archiving techniques would only slow down the super cheap stuff from disintegrating.  Anybody who's ever tried to keep a Mexican one sheet alive knows the struggle. 

I've found that Italian and French posters are quite varied in their paper quality with some from the same year and printer being miles apart in their preservation states.  Certainly their storage history has a large part to do with that but when you start with a poor quality paper it's going to be an uphill battle keeping them together.
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