Digital BW, The Print

Hi,

I got my first boxes of the Hahnemule Photo Rag today. Some of the 
188 gsm and some of the 308 gsm. It appears that Hahnemule gave their 
customers close to what they were asking for, smooth Torchon.

The base color is very close to Torchon. It is whiter than Museo 
(probably has OBA's) but not as white as Legion Photo Matte, Eclipse 
Satine or even EAM, so perhaps they brightened it with a light touch.

The surface is smooth but not super smooth, in between Museo and EAM. 
Smoother than the Eclipse Satine.

The blacks with both Piezo and MIS VM appear to be identical to 
Torchon.

The hand or feel of the papers is not so nice. (Jerry, you will hate 
the 188 gsm.) Since they are rag papers they are very limp. While the 
thickness of the 188 gsm seems about the same as EAM and LPM the feel 
is flimsier. The Eclipse Satine 190 gsm seems like cardboard in 
comparison. The 308 gsm is nice though with a substantial feel to it. 
The 188 gsm will be fine for work prints and the 308 gsm for final 
prints.

The Piezo printed up nicely with the ConeTech Matte profile and the 
paper base color and the Piezo inks look to be a very nice match. I 
think this will be a popular Piezo paper.

With the MIS VM and the Neutral curve things are not so nice. The 
blacks are good but the curve (designed for EAM) needs a transfer 
function to really work with this paper. I also don't feel that the 
paper base color is a good match with the cooler inks. A second print 
using the Medium Warm curve produced the nicest color match for the 
paper but the curve is quite a ways off and will also need a transfer 
function.

Even with its less than modest price, I think it will find a lot of 
fans.

Martin