Ye Olde Inn

I'm printing up some tiles on photopaper and I was wondering what the best way would be to protect them?

Personally, I'd mount them to something. Chipboard, cardboard, anything to help keep them from bending. Aside from that, I don't know what people do with their created tiles.

I glue my prints to 1mm advertisement cardboard. It is cardboard with a glossy finish which really looks nice if you don't make your tiles double-sided.

I use spray glue or paper glue. Paper glue for things like doors, but spray on if I'm making a huge sheet of tiles all at once. It takes about 5 minutes to glue everything on. The hardest part about this is the alignment but nevertheless i've got it down quite well now and the tiles turn out great.

One more thing i am looking into is how to perhaps overcoat the tiles with some sort of finish that will preserve the paper. Maybe it is some kind of glossy spray that would make them more durable. Any insight on this?

laukiaerkko wrote:One more thing i am looking into is how to perhaps overcoat the tiles with some sort of finish that will preserve the paper. Maybe it is some kind of glossy spray that would make them more durable. Any insight on this?

That's exactly what I'm looking for. Right now I'm experimenting with laminating, but it's not ideal because it comes out very shiny. Also, when cutting flush, the lamination can peel off.

Try clear coat in a spray can, usually found near spray paint in a home improvement store. They usually have different finishes so you can avoid a really shiny finish. Try this with a test piece first though as I have no idea what the paper will absorb so I don't know how the finished piece will turn out. When I was a teenager, I coated my dice with clear nail polish to keep the images from rubbing off. However, this has two potential problems. The first being that nail polish is pretty harsh (or it was at the time. I don't know if this has changed). The second being that nail polish is pretty thick so you need to work to get it evened out and even then I could still see brush strokes in the finish.

Your choices are a bit limited and it'll cost more, but you can also try [url]http://www.boardgamesmaker.com]boardgamesmaker (the full service equivalent of MPC) dot com.[/url]

Personally I've not varnished mine. I get them printed to a high level of quality on a color laser and just glue-stick them to chipboard and cut with a scissors when dry. Works pretty well and doesn't curl (unless the pieces are really big and you use too much glue). I thought about varnishing them with Mod Podge, but decided they didn't really need it. I'm sure there's matte laminate out there you could try too.

I keep them inside plastic sheets in a binder when not in use.