Digital BW, The Print

Myron-


There is an article, Defining Archival Standards in Photography, posted as a free download at theagnosticprint.net.


I have five year old Epson's Enhanced Matt that have been hanging without glazing under fluorescent lighting. The base is now a buff tint.



Bill Kennedy
Professor of Photocommunications
Area Coordinator
St. Edward's University
Austin, Texas USA



-----Original Message-----
From: goch@... [DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint] <DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com>
To: DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint <DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Fri, Feb 24, 2017 5:39 pm
Subject: [Digital BW] Epson Velvet Fine Art Paper



  
    
                  

According to the blurb about Epson Velvet Fine Art Paper at my online retailer: 


"With a base that is 100% cotton rag, buffered and acid-free, this paper is coated with our popular Enhanced Matte coating, giving exceptional color gamut and high D-Max."


This sounds rather good, since I have always liked the look of the original [not-] Archival Matte. 


I assume that the new base itself would be as stable as a paper can be, so it should not fall apart like an old newspaper or cause deterioration of the coating. My recollection is that Enhanced Matte is/was Archival Matte with a less misleading name, and used brighteners. 


The use of brighteners does not in itself concern me, since they have be used in "real" photo papers (i.e. silver-gelatin) for a very long time, and prior to the digital-printing fetishization of printing papers no one in the fine print and fine art communities even *thought* about such things. (It was all residual hypo levels and selenium or gold toning in those days of safe lights, running water and the quietly comforting scent of photo chemicals.)


Do any of you know whether the "Enhanced Matte" coating is itself acid free, or what other kinds of archival qualities it might or might not possess?  Does anyone have this paper *and* a pH test pen?


Myron


P.S.  Any of you remember Sprint Chemicals' "printer brightener" solution?  I don't know the formula, but it was a brightener that you could use on silver-gelatin prints. I can't recall whether you used it just before or just after washing the print (after, I think).  But good grief! could it ever make a print ugly by over brightening if you soaked the print too long!!  Just the thing, though, if you wanted a "black-light" (UV) illuminated print to leap off the wall in your dorm room or man-cave.