Just had a chance to test a few sheets of Cranes new Museo Max paper. Fairly unscientific, but: I am finding this a very nice paper. Close to as sharp/crisp as Arches Infinity which, imo is one of the best in that regard. The texture is on the verge of being too much for me, but not quite (might be an issue with lots of smoothy sky area in prints) - close to the Epson Watercolour - maybe not quite as much Other than that it does give very nice blacks - it has to be one of the best couple of papers (using Epson UC inks but with MIS ebony black via QTR). Best of all I find it has a very neutral paper base. It is very slightly on the warm side, but it probably gives the most "neutral" b&w/grey of any paper. I can't detect any tendency towards the horrible "magentarism" that many paper base/coatings give under mixed light, nor any tendency towards green - even with straight Quad inks. For me, along with the nice blacks that neutral nature of the paper is a big plus. I only got six sheets to try, so I can't do much more testing, but this paper is in the top two or three for me along with Arches Infinity (smoother) and Dourian Fine Art by Red River (some OBA's). (if only it had slightly less texture it would possibly be #1). It's not the magic bullet or a quantum leap - but as far as blacks go, it appears one of the best. For now it's only available in rolls and larger sheets - smaller sizes are supposed to be in the pipeline Also there are colour profiles on the Crane site, which I haven't' tried yet) tim a tim
Message
Museo Max
2005-11-01 by Timothy Atherton
Attachments
- No local attachments were found for this message.