Digital BW, The Print

Hello Evan,

>what would most consider to be the brightest matte paper WITHOUT 
>OBA's added. (i have no clue here)

I haven't tried all matte papers but I've tried a lot of them, as
research for the "Great Paper Chase" article (#5 at the link below) as
well as my own personal use.  

My impression is that Premier Art Hot Press is the brightest non-OBA
paper I've seen.  Hawk Mtn's Merlin Natural is nearly as bright, and
Innova also has two very fine non-OBA papers (Cold Press Art and Soft
Texture Art) which are quite bright, although a bit warmer in paper
color than PAHP.


>Which matte paper gives the best dmax? (probably VFA or HPR from what 
>i gather)

When using MIS Eboni-based ink sets HPR had the best dmax in my tests.
VFA was just slightly less, followed by the Innova papers.  

However with Epson K3 ink, VFA is top dog (by a significant margin)
and HPR shares 2nd place with Innova and PAHP, with Merlin Natural in
3rd place.

I'm doing new tests with K3 inks and with the help of a friend with a
densitometer will be able to post measured dmax numbers in a few days. 


Regards,
Clayton


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