Digital BW, The Print

Hello All,

I am working on a major revision of the "Great Paper Chase" article
and have been testing a bunch of new papers introduced over the past
year.  I've also been on the phone with some of the vendors.  From all
this I have a couple of observations that, in light of the recent
forum discussions re Dmax, lead me to believe that the matte papers
will not only continue to improve in the Dmax department, but perhaps
will come much closer to or even equal glossy Dmax somewhere down the
road.

The first thing is that a lot of older papers have been discontinued.
In fact, the entire current C-List (the lower quality papers described
in the "Great Paper Chase" article) has been pulled from the market. 
This is just an indication that the paper market is evolving and
keeping up with the times.

The second thing is that the paper makers seem to be finally figuring
out how to get better Dmax.  For a long time it seemed that Hahnemuhle
was the only maker that knew how to get good Dmax and kept it a well
guarded secret.  I often wondered why nobody else's papers could match
theirs.  

Most of the vendors we buy paper from (even those who aren't simply
repackaging) don't make their paper.  They buy from a relatively small
number of manufacturers in Germany, Japan, USA, etc.  A few of the
vendors do formulate and mix their own coatings and take them to a
coating plant to be put on papers they buy from the makers.  Because
these vendors are dependent on the major makers, their response to my
question of why they can't get better Dmax has always been "I don't
know".  For the most part they aren't the chemists and aren't involved
on that level.  

But things seem to be changing now.  I have tested several new papers
that are very close to PR Dmax (the new Innova papers in particular
are excellent and there are several other very good ones), and one in
particular, Dourian Art by Red River, appears to exceed it.  I don't
have a densitometer so my evaluations are strictly eyeball, but when I
lay out all the Dmax test prints (they have a large area of solid RGB
0) and sort them into visually discernable groups, Dourian Art stands
out from PR and the others.  In fact, for the review I have revised
the Dmax grading system to account for it.  PR is no longer on top.
(the revised article isn't done yet, maybe another day or two).

Dourian also seems to have other good qualities and I have ordered a
box for more extensive testing.  I hope other forum members will give
this paper a try and post their impressions.  It's 100% cotton,
240gsm, looks bright so probably has OBAs (I'm waiting for
verification on that), is 2-sided, and has similar coloration to PR (a
tiny bit warmer in ink color but otherwise nearly indistinguishable,
just thinner with a slightly different texture).

So what does all this mean?  I see several things:

1) The makers are pursuing Dmax.  It's what sells.  The market is
growing and users are more well informed.  The low Dmax papers have
been discontinued.  The high Dmax glossy papers are being raved about.
Dmax is king.

2) Other makers are figuring out how to do it (they better if they
want to stay in business) and are catching up to H.

3) Now that H. will have some competition there will be a stronger
drive to one-up each other, so Dmax will continually improve.   It's
just a matter of time.


Let the Dmax wars begin! 


Regards,
Clayton


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