Digital BW, The Print

> The only way to get matte prints darker is by using dye inks, with 
> pigments you reach a point where the reflectance of the pigment particle 
> surface stays equal whatever amount of ink is applied. And that 
> reflectance is always higher then with black dye.  

I remember when QTR had that bug in 1440dpi mode where ink was literally 
poured out of the cartridge in big pools on the paper. The Eboni looked 
like shiny wax when the strength got too high. And at no point did the 
Dmax look higher than normal 100% Eboni.

> Black dye gets more 
> Dmax because it doesn't reflect the light as even the black ink has 
> transparency and the light penetrates the paper deeper and deeper while 
> it is still surrounded by black dye, it is then only reflected when 
> white paper is reached.  Scattered and what is left of the light it has 
> to return to the surface again following the same path through the black 
> dye.
 >
> Any Glop that increases the Dmax on matte papers will make it less matte 
> too. Or that Glop has to have black dye in it and doesn't have to reach 
> gloss status ;-)
> 
> Generations black has 25% dye in it, it is very black on matte papers 
> but will fade in time to its pigment quality.
> 
> Maybe we are now at the start of a new rage in adding an extra ink 
> channel with black dye that is laid down on top or underneath the 
> pigment black in another ink channel :-)
> I'm already getting quite close to Generations black on matte papers 
> with Eboni so I'm not interested.

I have some prints made with Generations black, and can't really see any 
visible increase in Dmax. Certainly nothing worth shortening the 
lifetime of the print over.

> There's a new pigment for paints recently developed that has an 
> extremely cracked surface, the cracks do something similar as the dyes, 
> it is used to get total non reflecting surfaces for optical systems so 
> will be used for cameras too. Have you ever seen the walls of 
> laboratories that are used for sound experiments, wedge shaped foam 
> maybe 30 cm deep sticked to the walls. Small frontal reflection and the 
> angle of the wedge so steep that there's no sound reflected from that 
> but reflected to the other wedge and so losing its energy till it hits 
> the soft wall. That's how you drown sound and light.
> 
> An ideal paper coating for inkjet printing should create something 
> similar, the ink shouldn't bleed sideways but should bleed inwards to 
> create a small well where light can get drown or get filtered deeply by 
> the color and return back preferably through that pipe again. Where no 
> ink is, the white on the other hand should reflect as much as possible 
> directly from the surface. Whether that is possible in one paper coating 
> and have an acceptable angle of view is another matter. Gloss paper has  
> a bit of that, you loose angle of view in return for more Dmax, the 
> white is reflecting more directly, there's a kind of drowning happening 
> at the black spots and what is reflected from there is scattered between 
> the gloss surface sideways.

Does all of this mean that a less glossy GLOP for glossy papers would 
also reduce the Dmax instead of increasing it? Sounds like there is an 
absolute link between glossiness and Dmax - Almost like a curse! :)

I guess what I'm after is either something to increase the Dmax of matte 
papers without sacrificing too much surface texture and adding too much 
gloss, or a GLOP for glossy papers which isn't as glossy as what we have 
today. Preferably something that rediced the gloss a bit rather than 
increasing it. I guess I just don't like high gloss prints.

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