How To Mount Prints On Mat Backing and Foam Board?

I will soon be displaying some prints in a public location. The venue has some specific requirements as follows

<i>All prints, black and white and color, must be unframed, mounted or matted on a 16" x 20" mat board, then mounted on a 16”
x 20” foam core board. Actual photos may be full 16" x 20" or smaller.</i>

I know that there are sprays and adhesive papers that can mount the prints to the board. However never having done this I thought I would ask what you all have found successful and inexpensive.

Thanks

NEVER use adhesive spray, always use methods that can be reversed with no harm to the print! LineCo Gummed Paper Hinging Tape 1” Wide can be used to afix the print and LineCo Gummed Linen Hinging Tape can be used to hinge the mat board to the foam core. Make sure to use acid free foam core and rag or linen mat board. Bekieve it or not acid free mat board, the cheap stuf, is NOT acid free. It is just treated so as not to have acid for a couple of years.

Hey Ed, I use 3M PMA Tape. Comes in different widths and in a fifty foot roll. It's adhesive on a waxy paper. Place the glue side on the back of the print, burnish the wax paper with a plastic tool that comes with the paper) and pull off the wax paper. Glue stays on the print, and then put the pint onto your foam core. Always worked great and never had an image pop. They say you can remove the print, but good luck. I never like the hinge methods, hated the look of the print when it rippled. Here is a link to the PMA Tape. http://www.c2f.com/html/productlist.asp?CategoryID=P-79872

I'll toss my 2 cents in as well. I'm not a fan of tape hinges anymore. It may be archival, but the rippling effect over time does not look good. I prefer dry mounting of some kind, even wet mounting is preferable to me.

I use repositionable spray adheisive to mount the print to the back. I've successfully pulled photos off the backing and respositioned them. I then use the 3M PMA Tape Mike mentioned to mount the matt. The 3M tape is very strong. I don't recommend trying to "unstick" it.

Thanks for all the advice Guys. I will order some 3M PMA tape. This is a lot better than paying for someone else to do it.

Interesting story: I have prints all over the house that have had tape hinges for years and are as flat as the day I mounted them. At my mom's, I have hinged photos that are perfect after decades. Recently, I put some shots in a gallery, and after a couple of weeks, they are full of waves and look awful. They are displayed with track lights during the week, then everything is turned off for a 3 day weekend, so expansion and contraction has caused problems that I have never encountered before. I hate putting adhesive on a print, but what else can you do?

I've been using Crescent Perfect Mount mounting board and like it. Cut it to size, peel off the paper, lay photo and matte down, roll it on. Job done.

Hoping to revive this thread: For you guys who use mounting adhesives, my problem has been bubbles in the print, no matter how carefully I lay the print down. I have tried rolling, but generally there will be one or two small ones that won't come out and if you roll, you ultimately damage the print. Tricks??

Andy and all. After reading all the posts and ordering Crescent Board only to have it back ordered for longer than I wanted to wait I decided to try the 3M Photo Adhesive.I bought at my local Michael's.

We aligned the print on the board and used a hinge tape just like in the old days. They I lifted the print from the bottom(non hinged side) and laid it back on the table so it was lying above the board face down but still attached to the board by the hinge. The tape hinge was thus folded backwards. Next to the print and board I had the mat face down. I then sprayed all surfaces that needed to have adhesive.

I then after about a minute gently lifted the non hinged side of the print and using the hinge to keep it in place had the print standing up on edge (so an 11x14 print would be standing on edge 11 inches in the air). I then bend the print backward and gently roll the print onto the board carefully keeping it aligned with the help of the hinge.

It is hard to explain but easy to do. I have done about 30 prints in this manner and have not had any bubbles.

Hope this helps.