OBAs
Posted: Fri 23 Mar, 2018 4:26 pm
Anyone know anything about the use of optical brightening agents in mountboard?
I avoid inkjet papers that contain them having read a lot of bad press on how they can discolour the paper over time, and anyway I prefer the warmer colour of the paper base. Having said that, I've been using photographic darkroom papers for longer than I care to mention and they all contain OBAs and I've never seen any noticeable discolouration of the paper.
My question is this... FATG conservation level states there should be no use of OBAs in mountboard so how do they make the boards so white? OBAs fluoresce under UV light and if I shine my UV torch on my conservation white mountboard samples they fluoresce very noticeably! This is easy to see when compared next to museum cotton boards that do not fluoresce.
Any thoughts?
I avoid inkjet papers that contain them having read a lot of bad press on how they can discolour the paper over time, and anyway I prefer the warmer colour of the paper base. Having said that, I've been using photographic darkroom papers for longer than I care to mention and they all contain OBAs and I've never seen any noticeable discolouration of the paper.
My question is this... FATG conservation level states there should be no use of OBAs in mountboard so how do they make the boards so white? OBAs fluoresce under UV light and if I shine my UV torch on my conservation white mountboard samples they fluoresce very noticeably! This is easy to see when compared next to museum cotton boards that do not fluoresce.
Any thoughts?