Digital BW, The Print

I just finished making some prints on the new Photorag Pearl and 
Innova FibaPrint Ultra Smooth Gloss.

Thanks to Jim Doyle at Shades of Paper for offering sample packs!

Thye are printed on a 3800 using ABW.  I made a quick QTR ICC for 
each.
All my recent printing had been on Innova Fiba Print Satin (the semi 
matte stuff).  This was after trying Silver Rag and Fine Art Pearl.

First the numbers:

HPRP:  Dmax:  2.22
Inn USG:  Dmax 2.46

This is after hair dryer and about 6 hours of drying time, so they 
may go down a little more.

Paper weight and feel:

Innova is 285 but feels a little thin.  It sits fairly flat in 8 1/2 
X 11, but I wonder if it will sit flat in bigger sizes.  THe PRP is 
320 and feels a lot heavier.  It is really nice to handle.

Paper color:

Innova is very white.  It is whiter (brighter?) then thier semi matte.
It is one of the whitest papers I have seen.  It is whiter then old 
step wedges I have of Illford multi grade.
The PRP is not brightened and looks as you would expect.  It is a 
very good match for Light Impressions broght white matte board.

Surface:

The Innova is glossier.  To my eye the gloss is identical to old 
fiber base air dried silver prints.  I spent over 20 years in the 
dark room and have lots to compare with, including old step wedges 
with lots of unprinted surface area.  The texture is also just about 
indentical to an F surface air dried.  It is remarkable.  By the way, 
I used Oriental Seagull, Ilford Multigrade, Forte Polygrade, Agfa 
Multi and Brovira among others.

The PRP is slightly less glossy.  It is between the 2 Innova papers
The surface does have a slight texture to it.  Under a loupe (low 
power) it looks like photorag, but smoother (the coating I assume).

Printing:
Both achievd the best d max with the premium semigloss setting so I 
made my iccs with that setting.  I hope that makes sense?  
The prints on both are beautiful.  The d max difference is visable, 
but I don't know that it is significant.  Both are pleny black enough.
The Innova again looks more like a fiber base silver print.  Not the 
same of course, but closer.  Don't think that matters either.  I do 
really like the smoothness of the surface.  Under very direct halogen
light the glare is smooth like a traditional print.  Ther may be 
slight bronzing, but the angle that it bronzes (or just glares) 
produces a glare on a silver print that makes it just as difficult to 
see.  Spraying may help too.  I don't think it is a problem, you just 
need to adjust the lighting.  
The PRP prints a bit warmer (of course) and is beautiful.  It does 
seem to glare and bronze just a bit more.  It also still has that 
sort of stipling effect that Fine Art Pearl has.  I think it is less, 
but under direct halogen (and these are floods, not spots) it is 
there.  I find this distracting and was my gripe with FAP.  It will 
take some more looking to decide if I can live with it.

So far I have printed 3 pictures and have 2 sheets left:) My overall 
impression is that these are really nice papers.  The Innova got rid 
of the ugly texture from the F paper. 

I am still trying to figure out which one has that real depth that 
makes you want to get in and crawl around in the picture.  At the end 
of the day, that is one of the most important things to me and what 
kept me using matte until this current generation of papers.  It will 
take me some more looking to figure that out (but the PRP is looking 
good!) The semi matte is still in the running too.  Maybe I'll 
tomorrow.

Peter