Digital BW, The Print

I purchased a 20 sheet box ($26.95) of the Premier Imaging UltraSmooth 
Fine Art paper (325 gsm) for evaluation from photowarehouse.biz and 
also a 50 sheet box ($12.95) of the Premier Imaging Premium Matte (210 
gsm) paper.  I purchased the latter paper to meet the $35 minimum order 
requirement.  The Premier Fine Art (PFA) is a sturdy, off white color, 
no OB, coated on both sides, cotton rag paper.  Surface is very smooth 
with a very slight texture on one side (the difference in texture 
between the two sides is much less pronounced compared to Eclipse 
Satine).  The Premier Premium Matte (PPM) is also double sided with 
similar surface texture characteristics, but is a brighter white color 
and somewhat flimsy feeling for a double sided 210 gsm paper.  I made 
profiles for both papers with the Epson 2200, UC inks, and QuadToneRIP 
2.0 (beta 8).  Printing characteristics were similar for both papers 
and no problems were observed with mottling or burnishing in the 
blacks.  I haven't noticed any flaking problems yet, but it has been 
quite humid here and I haven't deliberately tried to rough up the 
papers.  Paper base and dmax values were as follows:

PFA:  base 0.02, dmax 1.60
PPM: base 0.05, dmax 1.59

Prints look quite good on both papers with smooth tonal transitions and 
good blacks (despite the ho-hum dmax values).  If you can deal with the 
light weight of the PPM it is a good value as a proofing paper.  The 
PFA is nice, but I'm waiting to compare results and prices from other 
variants of this paper (particularly Epson Ultrasmooth Fine Art).
The QTR profiles and density data for these papers are available in the 
PPM and PFA archives in the QuadToneRIP 2.0 folder on my filesharing 
web site:
http://homepage.mac.com/scho/FileSharing2.html

Carl