Digital BW, The Print

Hello All,

When the K3 printers arrived in 2005 several people noted that HPR,
long time top dog for matte paper dmax, didn't look as good with K3 as
compared to MIS Eboni-based ink sets.  I noticed it myself, and also
that Epson's VFA looked better with K3.  Now I have some actual
densitometer readings to share.  It's quite interesting and supports
the visual reports.

Many thanks to Steve Karafyllakis who now has a densitometer and
graciously offered to read all my test prints.  I'm reading my
previous Eboni BO test prints and also some new K3 versions.  Readings
were taken 3 times on a large area of pure solid black (RGB 0,0,0). 
Here are some results, more coming later:

Paper                   Eboni      K3
---------------------------------------
H. Photo Rag             1.72     1.65
E. Velvet Fine Art       1.71     1.75
E. EEM                    ?       1.70
I. Soft Texture Art      1.65     1.66 
PA Fine Art Hot Press     ?       1.61
HM Merlin Natural         ?       1.55

I'll be updating the "Paper Chase" article soon with the new K3 test
results.

Regards,
Clayton


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

...and here is the HTML compensated version


> Paper...................Eboni......K3
> ---------------------------------------
> H. Photo Rag.............1.72.....1.65
> E. Velvet Fine Art.......1.71.....1.75
> E. EEM....................?.......1.70
> I. Soft Texture Art......1.65.....1.66 
> PA Fine Art Hot Press.....?.......1.61
> HM Merlin Natural.........?.......1.55


Why can't the smart people who invent this stuff make HTML handle spaces?

Here's an experiment with the <PRE> tag:

<pre>
Paper                   Eboni      K3
---------------------------------------
H. Photo Rag             1.72     1.65
E. Velvet Fine Art       1.71     1.75
E. EEM                    ?       1.70
I. Soft Texture Art      1.65     1.66 
PA Fine Art Hot Press     ?       1.61
HM Merlin Natural         ?       1.55
</pre>

Well, that didn't work.  Is this any better?

Paper___________________Eboni_____K3
---------------------------------------
H. Photo Rag_____________1.72_____1.65
E. Velvet Fine Art_______1.71_____1.75
E. EEM___________________ ? ______1.70
I. Soft Texture Art______1.65_____1.66 
PA Fine Art Hot Press____ ? ______1.61
HM Merlin Natural________ ? ______1.55

That's interesting. Tonight I am printing a color print with
Ultrachrome that had a 100% black background. I'm printing on Photorag
and Museum Etching as tests. The proof someone gave me to match was on
Epson Velvet Fine Art. I can't achieve that dmax with my roll
Hahnemuhle papers. The VFA is visually much darker. I measured it once
and it is way up there with their inks. Epson did a good job of
creating that coating with their inks. Too bad they don't make it in
rolls. Odd, because it is a better papaer than Sommerst I think.
Wilhelm has a pretty good rating for it with black and white with UC.

I don't use it for monochrome because with the Cone K7 inkset it is
actually lower in dmax than Photorag. Go figure. Ultrachrome is very
different.

I agree the Innova Soft Texture is a very nice paper for the money,
but not quite the dmax of Hahnemuhle, but close.

john





--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "Clayton Jones"
<cj@...> wrote:

>
> Here's an experiment with the <PRE> tag:
> 
> <pre>
> Paper                   Eboni      K3
> ---------------------------------------
> H. Photo Rag             1.72     1.65
> E. Velvet Fine Art       1.71     1.75
> E. EEM                    ?       1.70
> I. Soft Texture Art      1.65     1.66 
> PA Fine Art Hot Press     ?       1.61
> HM Merlin Natural         ?       1.55
> </pre>
>