Digital BW, The Print

The last roll of Etching I bought has been great, zero flaking, and 
yes waterproof. The ink does not budge unless you rub it after the 
paper is soaked. Same goes for Photo Rag 188gsm (haven't tested the 
308gsm), the ink does not spread. I did the same on some Intelicoat 
Magiclee canvas recently except I measured a profile target just 
before, and after an hour of soaking in hot water, and spraying with 
hot water for another twenty minutes (measured when dry again). The 
profiles generated were nearly identical before and after. And before 
anyone launches into how stupid and what a huge waste of time this 
type of testing is, I don't really care what your opinion is, this is 
valuable to me, so keep it to yourself. (prompted be reactions from a 
previous post about water testing)

I haven't actually measured the GE after a soaking, but visually it 
does not change. And as far as fragile goes, we must have different 
definitions of fragile, if handled in a careful way I have no 
problems, no need to be extra careful though, and no need to seal it 
in laquer. I have no problem with blacks that scuff more easily than 
other colors, but I do remember that from when I was using one of the 
dye/pigment hybrid matte black inks that most people are using. And 
of course with that type matte black, any water on the paper is going 
to cause a problem. You might consider testing some of the Eboni 
black, and its light black partner. Both are said to be more neutral 
than other all pigment blacks (the full black is more neutral). Or 
you might try the new "better" than UltraChrome replacement inks that 
may not be listed on the MIS site. I'm getting slightly deeper black 
than the Eboni I had loaded a few days ago. May just be a fluke, but 
maybe a slightly better black and still no ink spread when water is 
applied even when the print has only dried for an hour. I'll be doing 
more testing on this new ink set as time permits. If you aren't 
getting water resistant prints on those Hahnemuhle papers, there are 
only two things that could be wrong. One would be your water, if you 
can drink it without gagging, then it is probably OK. Two would be 
your inks, don't know what to tell you about those. Not saying that 
what I have been using is superior in every way, but on some papers 
they at least aren't losing anything. On some they do not perform as 
well as certain other types of pigment ink. There are always trade 
offs.

And at this point you can either believe me or not, it matters not to 
me as this is very likely the last time I report any of my testing 
results.