Digital BW, The Print

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, Carl Schofield
<scho@m...> wrote:
> Has anyone tried this paper from Breathing Color?  They claim a dmax of 
> 1.7 with MK ink which would put it in the same league as EEM and HPR.  
> Priced at 0.99/sqft.
> http://www.breathingcolor.com/pibm.htm

Breathing color nicely sent me 3 sample 8.5x11 sheets to test. The
tooth and color are right between H German Etching and H PhotoRag,
nearly ideal. Unfortunately with my setup here, dmax came in a good
0.1+ lower than the H papers. It looks like it takes inks well, no
mottle like SomE can have, and no differential reflectiveness like
Infinity and some others. With regard to another issue visited here
occassionally, this paper was helped by using a light K ink as an
under print for K. From bare K, Dmax was increased by 0.04 -  0.08
with a dark gray (light K) undercolor.
This is one of those coatings that seems to print carbon inks cold,
like some of the Hawk Mtn coatings and Arches Infinitey. My warmest
ink setup was barely warm at all, the coldest ink colder than the same
on H papers here. Even with the lower Dmax, the test prints were very
smooth and appealing, the surface really nice. I suspect there are
many papers in this Dmax area and just because it doesn't reach the
almighty H level doesn't mean many people would not love it. Judging
by your reaction to Merlin, you may really like this stuff.
Regarding my Dmax results, I've seen reports here of EEM Dmax being in
the same region of HPR. Never seen that here, it's always been lower
on my printers and the drivers and inks I've used. So others may get
different results.
Still need a serious contender to knock off the big H.
Tyler