Digital BW, The Print

I had the chance to spend a short amount of time recently at one of the stores here and they had some new Canson papers that I had not seen before. I didn't have a lot of time to look and compare, but was wondering if some of you could give me your impressions of the Platine Fibre and the Baryta Photographique. Both are 310 gsm and use PK ink. I've also have been reading about Jon Cone's Type 5 and am intrigued by it as well. Any comments you have would be welcomed.

On Jul 27, 2010, at 5:32 PM, Keith wrote:

> I had the chance to spend a short amount of time recently at one of the stores here and they had some new Canson papers that I had not seen before. I didn't have a lot of time to look and compare, but was wondering if some of you could give me your impressions of the Platine Fibre and the Baryta Photographique. Both are 310 gsm and use PK ink. I've also have been reading about Jon Cone's Type 5 and am intrigued by it as well. Any comments you have would be welcomed. 

I've been trying both of them.

Platine looks a lot like Hahnemuhle Photo Rag Baryta. Very nice paper with no optical brighteners.

Baryta Photographique is pretty smooth (slight stipple), very similar to air dried darkroom paper. It has the odor of darkroom paper like Harman FB Al does but has more of a sheen (to my eye) vs. the Harman which looks glossy. It does have some optical brighteners in it but visually, it still isn't as bright as other papers with brighteners.

Jim

On 10-07-27 3:32 PM, "Keith" <kjrslr@...> wrote:

> I had the chance to spend a short amount of time recently at one of the stores
> here and they had some new Canson papers that I had not seen before. I didn't
> have a lot of time to look and compare, but was wondering if some of you could
> give me your impressions of the Platine Fibre and the Baryta Photographique.
> Both are 310 gsm and use PK ink. I've also have been reading about Jon Cone's
> Type 5 and am intrigued by it as well. Any comments you have would be
> welcomed. 

I've gone through a roll of Cone Type 5, and I'm about to order a box of
17x22. This is my core gloss paper now, and I'm quite attached to it.

Cone Type 5 a very elegant paper. It's a warmer paper than Canson Baryta
Photographique, very similar to Silver Rag. It has a soft gloss, which is
more subtle than you see on Baryta Photographique. The Canson's texture is a
smooth, fine tooth whereas Type 5 has a subtle pattern. That pattern is very
elegant, and it gives the sense that you're looking at a beautiful rag
paper. It also feels like a rag paper, whereas I find that Baryta
Photographique has somewhat of a "plastic" feel.

Type 5 does not have OBA's, yet I don't feel it lacks any punch or presence
compared to Baryta Photographique or other bright OBA papers like Epson
Exhibition Fibre. Both Type 5 and Baryta Photographique have baryta
coatings, so both are sharp. If anything, I think Type 5 is a bit sharper,
but that may be due to a higher contrast on Type 5 with the image I'm
looking at.

My only niggle with Type 5 is that I have to take measures to prevent the
infamous white flex'. I hope this has been improved with the latest batch.

If you're partial to matte papers, but like the Dmax, saturation and dynamic
range of gloss, you will like Type 5. I have not seen anything else quite
like it.

Terry.