Digital BW, The Print

john dean wrote:
> Well he's got a point Ernst, the Z does lay down gloss enhancer
> superbly for the rc papers, especially their Pro Satin that is totally
> worked out. However, it is NOT always enough for the fiber gloss
> media. Personally I've experienced great resuts with most of these
> papers on the Z for color but more often than not with the fiber gloss
> media and black and white, there is NOT enough go laid down, resulting
> in very objectionable (to me) gloss differiental.( yea you wouldn't
> see it behind glass). This varies significantly with various media.
> Such as Harmon fiber gloss not being usable even with color, Innova
> some gloss differential with color and bad with black and white,
> Ilford Gallerie Gold great with color very bad with black and white
> :-(, Crane Silver Rag very good with both color and black and white.
> All look good with one strong coat of Premier Art spray, but who needs
> that headache for large things.
> 
> I just bought the Hahnemuhle Photorag Baryta to try this weekend,
> which I hear is a very good fit for everything on the Z, as well as
> the new Baryta that HP has designed for their inks that may or may not
> be the same paper...?  These might be the answer, along with Crane
> Silver Rag. 
> 
> But, it would indeed be nice if one could run a second pass of the go 
> inorder to work effectively with all this media. OR, as you say the
> Z3200 allows, control of the amount used per media apart from the
> other channels. Or Studio Print for 12 inks.
> 
> Is there any way that could be controlled on the 3100 apart from a
> second run?

Alright, I do not have as much experience with the Fiber 
papers and didn't think of them when I wrote that. Collected 
several samples that I still have to try. The one that I 
tested and like is the Sihl baryta which is closer to matte 
than satin and the GE is just right to lift it to semi-satin 
in the image. Tested some Innova in the past but rejected 
the qualities then on other specs, Innova has new qualities 
right now. The rest of my GE experience is with RC papers 
and there it is good.

If the Z3200 allows as much control on the GE amount as the 
Wasatch SoftRip allows with the Z3100 then I think part of 
your problems may be solved but not all. There must be a 
limit where the paper doesn't allow too much ink medium as 
bleeding will happen. A suitable paper or a double run is 
then the answer.

I don't think the two baryta's are the same. Couldn't get a 
sample at the HP booth but there was a texture difference if 
I recall it correctly and there's weight difference, 290 
versus 325 grams, the HP has a buffered fiber but no mention 
of cotton content. One would expect the HP version to be 
compatible to the Z3100 printers and the printed samples on 
the HP booth didn't show gloss differential, I checked that.

Apart from the trick in Economy Mode with an edited profile 
to get the RGB 255 covered with GE (or with a print filter 
curve in Qimage) there is no way to influence the GE amount 
with the Z3100 right now. The RIP does as mentioned but you 
wouldn't want that one for the color it produces. Using 
another media preset with more ink and limiting the ink 
(100-80%) in a custom media preset made of it will probably 
reduce the GE as well but I have not tried that. There's 
already a 46 to 32 % ink limit present in the various OEM 
gloss media presets and I do not know what you have used 
already and whether the 14% difference would do the job.

-- 
Met vriendelijke groeten, Ernst


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