RE: [Digital BW] Crane Portfolio Rag DMAX
2007-08-02 by Richard Wolfson
(This is a cross-post with the DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint group, since Terry Ritz posted his question here, and my reply relates to Roy's latest QTR.) I like Crane's Museo Portfolio Rag very much for my black & white printing. Here are some of my Dmax measurements with a few comparisons. Note that I'm using the new GQ2 ink set I designed for Media Street. Paper Dmax K limit Museo Portfolio Rag 1.64 50% Hahnemuhle Photo Rag 1.72 100% Museo Silver Rag K = Photo Black Neutral 2.09 63% K = Matte Black 1.77 100% I agree with John Dean: you have to limit the inks on Crane's papers, and it is a beautiful paper. Since it has no optical brightener, it is a little warmer (but just a little) than Hahnemuhle Photo Rag. Since the GQ2 ink set includes both warm and cold grays in its seven inks, it's easy to adjust how warm the b&w prints should be. I build Cold, Warm, and Neutral profiles, and Roy Harrington's latest QuadToneRIP offers "Split Tone Curve Blending." That makes it easy to blend those three profiles for beautiful platinum prints (warm in the light to mid tones, neutral to cool in the darker tones) on papers like Crane's. Richard Richard Wolfson black & white digital printmaker www.RichardWolfson.com