Digital BW, The Print

Paul --
I thought that Hydrocote was now the final stage in your workflow, 
but from what you say about spraying a fixative to set the high-load 
pigs, this doesn't seem to be the case. Are you not regularly using 
Hydrocote? 

I spent quite a bit of time trying to get even coatings (using a 
Mayer #30)and finally achieved a good result. Alas, I found I didn't 
care for the appearance of the coated print as much as the smooth 
matte surface, even with the better dmax, so I abandoned the 
practice. But I thought you were fully into it. Not so?

 "Paul Roark" <paul.roark@v...> wrote:
> I have previously mentioned that I occasionally notice increased 
unevenness
> in the "high-load" black pigs I've been printing.  I think I've 
made some
> progress with these now.
> 
> The short answer is that turning off "High Speed" printing on my 
1160 seems
> to get rid of the vertical lines/marks that have appeared in some 
of my dark
> black skies.
> 
> As background, what I call "high-load" pigments are those that use 
one of
> the new bases that allows pigmented inks to carry a higher content 
of
> pigment.  Whereas the older pigments contained up to about 3% 
pigment, the
> new ones are up in the 6% to higher range.  The UltraChromes and 
the
> PiezoTone Museum black are currently-available samples that come 
to mind,
> but these pigments will be increasingly available.
> 
> The good news with respect to the high-load pigments includes the 
increased
> gamut of the color pigs and the deeper black that can be achieved 
without
> any dye.
> 
> The bad news may be increase sensitivity to damage that this big 
pile of
> pigment on the paper causes.  I think this puts the image at 
greater risk of
> physical abrasion, among other things.  (I may spray a light 
archival
> fixative on even my matte images to protect them.)
> 
> The vertical lines I've been seeing in my black skies may be 
mechanical
> marks put on a more-exposed pile of pigments on the surface of the 
paper.
> With the "High Speed" off these pigs, perhaps, have more time to 
dry and
> thus resist damage done by the 1160's rollers.
> 
> Paul
> http://www.PaulRoark.com