Digital BW, The Print

It would be nice to know, in the first instance, simply whether a paper has
them or not.  I thought HPR and Permajet Alpha did not have Ops.  Is this
correct?


> From: john dean <deanwork2003@...>

> 
> 
> By the color ( same as Photorag ) you can tell that Innova Smooth Cotton
> does have some optical brighteners. I don't belive the Soft Texture does but
> I'm not sure about that. You can call Jim at Shades Of Paper and ask him. He
> is the expert. That is new to me that German Etching has brighteners. If it
> does 
> they are very minimal.
> 
> I used to be afraid of even using Photorag because of this issue. But then it
> was pointed out to me that all the gelatin silver prints that my photo heroes
> used since the 1940's also had them as do many traditional Intaglio
> printmaking media. I do spray these ob papers  with the uv sprays which I
> believe will lessen the potential for problems down the line. However, if you
> look at Wilhelm's test results of Somerset Velvet that contains quite a bit of
> ob's, its stability ratings are as high or higher than other media that do not
> have them. So, apparently it is not a singular factor. There are other
> considerations. As someone pointed out on this group a while back, not all
> ob's are created equal. There are some that deteriorate more quickly while
> others are much more stable, just as in the situation with the ph of coatings
> and paper bases.
> 
> It would be nice to have a whole scientific paper describing these things
> though, wouldn't it. So to a degree we wouldn't have to speculate.
> 
> My personal feeling is that Innova is in this for the long haul, have done
> their 
> homework, and they know the repercussions of mistakes and bad press.
> 
> Paul Roark may be able to comment more fully on all this. He's actually done
> comparison tests of many papers in this regard.
> 
> John