Digital BW, The Print

Richard Smallfield wrote:
> Hi,
> I have been using Hawk Mountain Sparrowhawk for the last couple of months and have found it a good weight and gives good results (with the exception of large black areas which have a slight problem like EEM does with holding the black ink - this is rarely a problem however).
>
> Having just printed a portrait job with this paper, with good results, I've just picked up a piece of the paper that was on my desk for at least two or three weeks and saw slight discolouration around the edges.
>
> This is a worry - I had thought that, seeing it's acid and lignin-free, it would be very stable.
>   
I suspect that it is very stable in a stable environment. But no paper 
product is immune to the effects of an unstable environment.

Most any fine art paper will act almost like a sponge to environmental 
pollution which includes picking up acids and contaminates from your 
desk, other papers (particularly newsprint), cardboards, ozone and smoke 
from the air, etc. Odds are good then that you've contaminated your 
paper, and it's showing the effects of this mistreatment.

When I worked at a newspaper I saw first hand the effects of leaving 
fiber-based photopaper laying on newsprint for a day meant to the print. 
It's not just fine art papers that react this way to the environment.
--
Bruce Watson