Digital BW, The Print

Thanks for the info Tyler.  I also received some sample sheets of 
Elegance from Breathing Color and had similar results.  I tried 
printing with a new Epson 4000, BO with Ultrachrome MK (no RIP to drive 
this baby yet) and was only able to come up with a dmax of 1.56.  
Surface appearance is very similar to Somerset Enhanced Velvet, but as 
you noted no mottle.  The Epson MK usually prints very warm in BO mode 
on most matte papers, but was closer to neutral on this paper.  The BO 
"grain" is also very apparent in the midtones on this paper (note that 
it is not possible to print 2880 dpi BO with the Epson 4000 driver  to 
matte papers - if you choose any matte paper media type 2880 resolution 
is not available in the driver and if you choose an RC paper media type 
the driver will use the PK black).  I don't know how BC achieved a 1.7 
dmax with this paper - perhaps with dye inks?  I think it was Clayton 
that liked the Merlin paper - I haven't tried it yet.

Carl

On Sunday, May 9, 2004, at 04:58  PM, Tyler Boley wrote:

> --- 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