Digital BW, The Print

>What is a very good dmax? What was the highest dmax some of 
>you have found for matte papers?

>1.74 seems high enough.

That's about all you can ever expect on a matte paper with today's pigments.
I see 1.76 occasionally, but I've never seen a 1.8 with pigments on matte
paper.  These claims of 2+ are just nonsense from what I can tell.  It'll
take different pigments to reach much more than what we are now seeing.  The
current carbon pigments are simply not entirely black.  Until a pigment with
a lower reflectance is developed (and there was a group in England that was
doing so), we seem to be stuck at about 1.75 -- which is very good,
actually.

>Is there an unofficial list of measured dmax for different 
>matte papers somewhere?

The linearization data in QTR is open to all and shows the dmax (in Lab L)
for the papers and inks profiled.  It'll vary with pigment, ink, paper,
(phase of the moon) ...  You can add a point or so to what is in my profiles
because I do not wait overnight to measure the result -- just use a
hairdryer.  As the glycols slowly evaporate or migrate to the cellulose
substrate, the carbon becomes a little duller and has a slight dmax
increase.

> I understand it might change with ink formulations.

Yes.  Some hybrid dye-pigment inks probably do better, but MIS's "universal"
(hybrid) black does not do as well as Eboni on matte paper.

Innova papers, by the way, took a hit with the K3 printers and Epson MK.
They do better than the 1.55 shown below with older printers and with Eboni
even with at least some of the new printers.  MIS Alpha, for example, which
is the Innova Soft Texture, beat the Premier Art papers with the R260 and
QTR black only printing. 

Paul
www.PaulRoark.com 




--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, Max Dee
<deeemaxxx@...> wrote:
>
> innova 1.55 dmax while PremierArt Smooth Hot Press gives you 1.74 
> 
> Manuel Toledo <mtoledo@...> wrote: Hi,
> 
> I am thinking about trying this paper. Is it good in terms of dmax &
> dynamic range? Anyone using it with MIS k4 inks? Is innova's icc good
> enough?
> 
> Thanks in advance!
> 
> manuel
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ---------------------------------
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