Digital BW, The Print

Hello Ernst,

>>Kayenta and Fiba are the cream rising to the top - really fine 
>>papers.

>Thirty years ago I came across some information about papers
>specially made for books...Library of Congress approved that 
>paper...Since then I have used both Alpha Cellulose and Rag paper 
>without hesitation as long as the sizing had some buffering...
>In the thirty years passed the myth about superiority of rag 
>papers hasn't changed and it will not change in the next thirty 
>years. 

I think that will be true, and it's understandable.  We are constantly
barraged with so much exaggerated hype for products that one has to be
skeptical just to survive.  In this case it took a lot of my own
research before I would accept it.  And of course even now I really
don't know, but am just accepting some published information.  On the
other hand I do have some silver prints that have been around for 20
years and still bright white (I even put one outdoors for a total of
about 30 hours in direct full Florida sun).
 

>Coatings is another matter...I'm more concerned about the bond
>between the coating and the paper than about the paper quality 
>itself....Wilhelm should test the bond of paper coating...

Yes.



>Your Fiba has OBAs though, better test that in the sun to see what 
>it looks like in some years. Could still be nice though.

Already have some on the windowsill, will be adding Kayenta today.

I've also done some research on OBAs and am not so worried about that.
I've had a variety of papers around (PR, Condor, Merlin, etc.), in
sun and under fluorescent lights, for 3+ years now and all I've seen
turn yellow is EEM.  Only other thing I've seen is some slight
lessening of brightness, not what I'd call change of color.  The
change is even across the prints and they don't look degraded in any
way.  Only way to tell is put them next to a new sheet.  I haven't
seen any of the patchy horrible yellowing described in the worst
predictions.  I've been told that the technology has improved
enormously and it's not the issue it once was. And of course there are
those 20 year old silver prints that are still bright white.  Surely
they have OBAs.  So I'm just not too worried about it.  I guess time
will tell.

Regards,
Clayton


Info on black and white digital printing at    
http://www.cjcom.net/digiprnarts.htm