Digital BW, The Print

Hello Richard,

>I'm currently doing window tests of two non oba papers and four
>brightened ones. All of the bright papers have gone to a natural
>cream colour similar to the unbrightened papers I'm testing...But 
>the PremierArt Matte BW has yellowed to a far smaller degree than 
>the other three.

It's good you're doing these tests and I hope you'll continue with
more papers.  We need more actual test results.  Can you give us more
information, like test conditions, how many days on the test before
change occurred, etc?  Anything you can add will help.

Hawk Mtn's Condor BW and Peregrine Smooth (used to be called Merlin
Smooth) seem very stable.  I just looked at a piece of Merlin that's
been on my window sill since September 2005 and compared it to a fresh
piece - can hardly tell any difference.  

On my kitchen bulletin board, under almost constant fluorescent light,
is a beautiful "Sada's Flowers" card you sent me (can't remember when
but says 2006 on the back) on Sparrowhawk which is still bright white.
It really looks nice amongst all the dingy EEM prints around it.  It's
got to have OBAs but they must be very stable.  One thing that has
changed a lot, very much like EEM only over a longer period, is
Innova's PhotoFiba.


>Velvet Fine Art and PhotoRag I have loved in the past...I assume 
>they have far less brightening than any of the really bright papers 
>I'm testing (like Entrada Bright), as they are no where near as white. 

I think they have less OBAs, or at least more stable long lasting
ones.  I haven't conducted tests but have had prints lying around for
several years that look good.  I have a 27 month old VFA test print
that's been hanging under almost constant flourescent light and is no
different than a fresh sheet.  But it hasn't gotten any sunlight so I
just moved it to the window sill with a cover strip and will report
any changes.  I can't find any old PR prints that have been exposed,
just ones in storage.

I'm sure these will change some, I just don't know how much and over
what period of time.  All these years people have talked about it but
I've never seen any actual test data nor heard anyone report a real
incident where there's been a problem or customer complaint or
anything.  My own experience shows the above papers to have changed
very little.  Maybe it just takes longer and nobody notices.

One question that comes to mind is say VFA and PR do eventually
lose some brightness and/or whiteness and become more like their
non-OBA bretheren, will their good dmax also suffer?  Doesn't seem to
on EEM.  If it does "unbrighten" but retains it's better dmax then is
it still more advantageous to use it instead of a non OBA paper with
lesser dmax, especially if it changes so slowly as to be unnoticeable?  
What do you think?

Are you going to test any of the fiber glossy papers?

Regards,
Clayton


Info on black and white digital printing at    
http://www.cjcom.net/digiprnarts.htm