Digital BW, The Print

>Ok, made a bunch of 7660 prints on the hp Premium Plus glossy that
>look really good.  The driver is very accurate and the tonality of
>the prints is great.  Everyone I've showed them to thinks they look
>better than my 1160 MIS VM mw prints (hard to accept given all the
>effort that went into making them)... and this is after I go out of
>my way to point out the slight greenish tint under certain lighting.
>The depth of shadow detail is significantly greater than I've seen
>out of pigment prints.
>
>The thing that concerns me is that the paper seems to like to buckle
>and curl so just hanging the prints behind a matt is not going to
>work.  How has anyone mounted this stuff?  Is that funky weird stuff
>on the back a problem?

Mark -

I haven't mounted any, but I did find that they can be flattened slightly
by using a dry-mounting press on the lowest possible temperature. More
experiment would probably determine the correct time/temperature
combination, but the ink/paper combination appears to be robust.

One way to get around the problem entirely, and to make even better-looking
prints, is to use Ilford Galerie Classic paper. I tried some over the
weekend: it's another swellable-polymer surface so it absorbs and
encapsulates the dye inks and _should_ therefore be fairly durable. It also
swells MUCH less than the HP and has better shadow detail and really
imperceptible gloss differential. If somebody (Paul, are you listening?)
will please tell me that this stuff will last at least as long as a toned
black-and-white RC print, I'm off to buy a couple 100-sheet boxes and try
to unload all the HP Premium Plus I stockpiled...

-- Nick

NICHOLAS HARTMANN
Technical and scientific translator
(414) 271-4890
nh@...
http://www.nhartmann.com