Digital BW, The Print

* -----Original Message-----
* From: Robbe [mailto:videocinema@...t] 
* Sent: Monday, September 08, 2003 11:31 AM
* To: DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com
* Subject: RE: [Digital BW] Re: Ferrotype print from digital file?
* 
* 
* I still have a couple of clients that insist on ferrotyped 
* glossy prints.  I don't know the current requirements, but 5 
* or 6 years ago, the national historical archive was still 
* requiring them -NO RC prints would be accepted nor would they 
* accept air-dried fiber glossy paper.
* 
* And I don't use a glazing solution. Water works fine if the 
* plates are clean and polished.
* 
* Hmm, I wonder if you took a piece of fiber F paper, fixed it, 
* air dried it, printed an image w/ultrachrome ink(sorta 
* waterproof) and then ferrotyped it?
* 
Robbe,

People have tried printing with inkjet on processed silver gelatin paper and
I am afraid it does not work. The fixing process hardens the gelatin. The
ink just sits on top it and is easily wiped off. Inkjet pretty much requires
special receptor coatings to control the absorption of the ink into the
paper.

Even if the ink did stick it would be on top of the paper and look nothing
like a ferrotyped print.

To clear up the confusion. "ferrotype" has two definitions:

"ferrotype

-v., -typed, -typ.ing,
-n. Photog. 

-v.t. 
to put a glossy surface on (a print) by pressing, while wet, on a metal
sheet (fer'rotype tin"). 

-n. 
1. Also called tintype. a positive photograph made on a sensitized sheet of
enameled iron or tin. 
2. the process of making such photographs."

I guess the original "ferrotyping" of silver fiber prints was done by
pressing the prints face down on the same smooth metal sheets as used to
make "ferrotypes".

Martin Wesley http://www.carolyn.cc/Guests/MartinWesley/pages/MW_01.html
http://www.borderless-photos.de/guests.html