Digital BW, The Print

I got a pack of this paper after reading about the high dmax it was 
supposed to have. In my opinion it's easily the worst paper I've ever 
tried. Here's why:

It's not really a matte paper at all. The coating feels sligtly sticky 
and very plasticky, like you would expect from a glossy paper. It has a 
watercolor texture, but it looks and feels like it was dipped in 
plastic. It would almost be more appropriate to call this a watercolor 
textured semigloss paper.

The color is yellowish, and does not go well with the neutral tone of 
the Eboni.

UT7 inks will not stick to the paper at all, you just get wet puddles of 
ink lying on top of the paper. BO with Eboni works fine, but that means 
you're stuck with the cold tone of the Eboni ink. For this paper I woul 
prefer a warmer tone.

It might in fact have a very high Dmax, but the glossy coating combined 
with the heavy watercolor texture makes sure that you get surface 
reflections from nearly every angle of light, which makes the percieved 
dmax much lower than most other papers.

Just goes to show that numbers are not everything. There are many 
factors that come into play, and everything has to come together for a 
paper to truly stand out.

--
Daniel Staver
http://daniel.staver.no