Digital BW, The Print

>  From what I've heard, the PremierArt Fine Art Matte is the better
paper. Paul Roark reported very good dmax with it. The Sparrowhawk can
produce a slightly speckled or uneven appearance in large areas of
black - but this is seldom a problem. Just with a low-key portrait
with a black background did I have the problem.


I just got a box of the Premier Art Matte BW paper and am not quite so
impressed with it. The paper is bright white and 2 sided, but it has
some curl, and isn't packaged all that well so the ends and corners
aren't flat. Curled paper is definitely an issue with the 3800.

The paper has a decent dmax of about 1.66 on my PFP spectro, but its
main problem is what appears to be excessive dot gain. I've been
fooling around with paper settings and ink density modifications and
finally settled on Ultrasmooth Fine Art as the media setting.
Unfortunately this is not what I wanted to do because the Epson print
driver is so freakin' lame that it forces you to use the rear manual
feeder on this setting.

I was also going to give sparrowhawk paper a try, but after hearing
about speckling I'm not so sure if I will. The others to consider are
Moab Kayenta and Red River Polar Matte. I tried Kayenta a few years
ago and it had poor quality control characteristics (flaking and shiny
speckles). I hear that it is a better paper now so may try it. I've
heard that Polar Matte is good, but only being single sided makes its
cost around $0.50 per full sheet print, whereas with the 2 sided
papers you get to flip the sheet for testing and proofs.