Digital BW, The Print

kenstrain2000 wrote:

> --- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, hogarth@s... wrote:
> >
> > OK people, you lost me. What is it about the paper industry that people
> > find so scary?
> OK here is a quiz.
>
> Vendors A, B and C have contract manufacturing done by 1 and 2.

But they get coated by vendors x, y, and z.

And converted by vendors n, m, o, and p.

The thing is that vendors 1 and 2 are using the recipes of vendors A, B, 
and C, and these recipes go with vendors A, B, and C, and contractually 
can not stay with vendors 1 and 2.

>  
> A (my favourite paper) uses 1, but after a while changes to 2, and my
> clients don't like the change.  But I know enough  to realise that
> vendor B also gets paper made by 1

But not to the same recipe - and that's the problem. The paper that 
vendor B gets made by vendor 1 is almost certainly different than the 
paper vendor A gets made by vendor 1. You can change, but you get a 
different paper.

And this doesn't talk about the coatings, without which inkjet printing 
is just a blur (pun intended ;-).

> , whereas I have no idea which
> manufacturer C uses. 
>
> Guess which paper I try next?

I don't know - which one? Whichever it is, you'll get something 
different than what A was getting from 1.

>
> I know this is oversimplified, but I think it illustrates the source
> of the desire to be well informed, and hints at the benefits to the
> vendor as well as the customer.

My point is, knowing the manufacturing chain doesn't necessarily make 
you well informed.

>
> I can think of other benefits too: information rarely hurts the
> customer, I think.

>   (E.g. if I am testing papers and know for sure
> that two are identical, 

On that we can agree. I just see this as happening very rarely - two 
differently branded papers actually being the same - same paper, same 
coating. There's every incentive for them to be different. Same paper, 
different coatings, or different papers same coating, neither of which 
is interchangeable.

> I can try the cheaper.) 
>
>
> Ken

This idea would work where the paper plants are making generic papers 
for generic processes - like laser copier paper. But in the fine art 
world, the paper plants aren't making generic papers. They are making 
special orders on contract to a specification in the contract. And 
therein, I think, lies the problem.
--
Bruce Watson