Digital BW, The Print

OK.  Profiles done and ink limits properly adjusted.  Both color and  
grayscale prints have a nice soft gloss - yes, very much like air  
dried glossy FB silver paper.  There is bronzing in the quarter tones  
and gloss differential is evident in shadow areas of both color and  
grayscale  prints.  I really expected this and so here is yet another  
paper that really needs print shield or glop for optimal results, but  
I'm not going there.  I've reached the point where I don't want to  
deal anymore with post printing treatments of glossy papers, so they  
will be used as is when possible or just not used at all if GD/ 
bronzing are objectionable.  Harman Al Glossy is the best of the new  
FB crop that I've seen so far, but I don't know yet how much I'll use  
it and for what.  For framed prints under glass or plexi matte is  
just fine and a lot less expensive.  I've been told that the Harman  
Glossy is really optimized for dye or hybrid dye/pigment inks and  
based on what I've seen so far with the high density MIS K4 pigs I  
can see why.  The pigments don't penetrate the coating that well and  
give the appearance of sitting on the surface of the print  
(particularly with shadow GD).  Sorry, but I just haven't seen "the  
look" of an image immersed in the paper like a real silver print as  
others have reported in their glowing reviews.  Perhaps these  
divergent impressions are just a difference between Epson K3 and MIS  
K4 behavior on this paper.  I would like to hear from others who are  
using this paper with inks other than Epson K3.  I may switch out the  
MIS PK to Epson K3 PK and see if that helps reduce the shadow GD  
problem.

Carl

> Steven Karafyllakis wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>> Hi Gary;
>>
>> This one is next on my list, if only because it got such a glowing
>> review on Luminous Landscape...which inks did you use with it? any
>> trouble with the surface fragility others have reported?

I just received the new Harman AL Glossy paper and I've just started  
making profiles for this paper with my Epson 4000, using MIS K4 inks  
and initially the Colorburst X-Photo RIP for color profiling.  First  
thing I noticed is that ink limits need to be very carefully adjusted  
to prevent overload.  The paper does not absorb ink (at least K4)  
readily and ink rub off can easily happen, even with careful  
handling.  I'll report more after I get the profiles done and the ink  
limits properly adjusted.

Carl