Digital BW, The Print

Robert, Bernd,

I finally got to see some prints on the new Hahnemule paper and I was 
surprised that it was not brighter. In fact to my eye it appeared to 
be almost identical in brightness to Museo. Very similar to the color 
of air dried fiber based silver prints. The surface is smoother and 
the blacks darker than Museo. It does not appear to have brighteners 
and as Robert says, this is probably about as bright as you can get 
without adding brighteners.

Will the OBA's effect the life of the paper or is it simply a matter 
of them fading out and changing the original appearance of the image? 
What is the expected life of the OB's in a paper under normal display 
and storage conditions?

I would guess that the Eclipse Satine and Velvet papers and the 
Legion Photo Matte all have OBA's.

This is rather disappointing for users of pigmented quad tone ink 
sets. The combinations of the matte papers and the matte finish of 
the inks give such as reduced Dmax compared to silver fiber; the very 
bright papers are real help in extending the tonal range of the 
process.

Thank you very much for the information.

Martin



--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@y..., chameleon@i... wrote:
> --- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@y..., " Ruhrfoto/Bernd L." 
> <ruhrfoto@y...> wrote:
> > --- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@y..., "Martin Wesley" 
> > <mwesley250@e...> wrote:
> > > The color shift in the EAM base was probably the brighteners 
> > fading 
> > > out.
> > > Martin
> > 
> > Martin, Todd, et al
> > EAM is that extra bright because it seems to have brighteners in 
> > the coating (brightness grade more than 100% - blueish tint). 
> > Photo Rag has abot 97 to 98 % without  using brighteners.
> > Bernd
> 
> Caveat:  Some of the below may be self-serving/self-promotion, but 
it 
> is intended with education.
> Although i have not seen and tested this particular sheet, it would 
> surprise me if this particular 100% cotton sheet has a brightness 
> rating of 97-98 WITHOUT optical brighteners.  Most of the other 
> digital art papers we have done competitive testing on here in our 
> labs DEFINITELY have optical brightening agents (OBA) in the sheet, 
> and this includes Torchon, German Etching, and William Turner.  (i 
> have not tested LPM, Eclipse, and some of the newer papers 
mentioned 
> in this list...yet.)
> It is true that OBA are not stable and may effect the print over 
> time.  in my very humble opinion, i would personally be careful of 
> using sheets with OBA for my prints.  
> 
> Self-promotion now coming:  the Crane digital art sheets (Museo, 
> ESFA, ETFA) do NOT contain any OBA and are in fact the whitest that 
a 
> 100% cotton sheet can be.  As a very large purchaser of cotton 
fiber 
> (think of all the currency paper), Crane specifies the cleanest 
> cotton fiber from all our suppliers, and has a very rigorous 
> inspection system for all incoming raw materials.
> 
> thanks for your attention, 
> robert rex
> (already hired by crane) ;)