Digital BW, The Print

Heard some good things about it over at
largeformatphotography.info.Wondering if anyone in this group has
tried it.Here is the quote Jack Flesher wrote about it over there.

"My friend Jim Collum called me a few days ago and said, "Jack, you
need to try this new paper now!"

The paper is the new Harman Inkjet "Gloss FB AL." So I went to my
local shop, picked up a box yesterday and set to profiling it for my
Epson 3800.

The first thing you notice is the paper's surface -- identical to
air-dried fiber-base silver, with a slight egg-shell finish and soft
gloss. Sweet. Next thing you notice is this paper even smells like
traditional silver paper. (Seriously!) Finally, it has a slightly warm
white base.

This paper is thick and also swells when the ink hits it, so I needed
to set my paper thickness up a notch (4 on the 3800 driver) and
platten gap to "wide" to avoid head-strikes on the wet surface. Once
all that was settled I printed the profiling targets, let it dry down
over-night and built the profile this morning.

I am now sitting here admiring my standard large paper evaluation
print -- a color test image (available for download at digital outback
photo), and a long tonal range B&W image, doubled up and printed
together on a single 13x19 sheet.

As for B&W, in the black patches I can distinguish patch 4 (4/4/4 rgb)
from 0 and 6, and in the white patches I can distinguish 253 from 255
and 252. (I can sense 254 is different from the surrounds, but can't
really "see" it as its own tone.) Anyway, this is incredible tonal
range, and of course is all present in the B&W image -- pure, deep
blacks with outstanding shadow detail all the way through to
delicately detailed highlights. Amazing.

As for color, I was frankly surprised -- it is excellent too. There is
a specific image of strawberries in the color test print that
reproduce to the most delicious I've seen from any paper yet All other
colors are exceptionally well represented too, including a blue sky
gradient, foliage yellows and greens and a difficult metallic bronze.

Now for the better news: There is NO gloss differential and NO visible
metamerism anywhere on the print!

Lastly, the "AL" in the paper name stands for "alumina," a reference
to the fact there is aluminum in the substrate -- ostensibly it's
there to emulate the slight metallic "glow" present in a
silver-gelatin print. And yes, I saved the best news for last, they
accomplished that feat. There is indeed a subtle metallic glow that
adds traditional silver depth to the final print.

This is amazing stuff folks; I have found my paper."

More info here: http://www.harman-inkjet.com/pressroom/article.asp?n=63