Digital BW, The Print

Thanks for your reply and additional info.  I was very surprised to learn German Etching 
had OB's(downloaded the PDF from ShadesOfPaper and it is listed in special features for 
German Etching).  Somerset Velvet for Epson has half the rating of Epson UltraSmooth in 
the Wilhelm data(90 vs 205 years for B&W under glass with UltraChrome).  Thats a pretty 
significant difference.  

Tariq


--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "john dean" 
<deanwork2003@y...> wrote:
> 
> 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