Digital BW, The Print

Josh,

Thanks for passing on the info.  I haven't written off Crane's Silver  
Rag yet, but it sure seems like QC is a big problem in the paper  
industry recently (see my posts and other's about similar problems  
with the Premier Art Luster Rag, and that was production material  -  
not beta).  If a company sends me a paper sample and asks for an  
evaluation then what they get back from me will be based on the  
product I receive - a critical review of that sample with  
recommendations for improvement.  If they knew that the product was  
deficient in some respect then they should have said so or not even  
sent out the samples.  If they have properly coated samples I'd be  
happy to take another look.

Carl


On Jan 4, 2006, at 3:47 PM, joshhackney wrote:

>
> Carl,
>
> Yesterday I was talking to a distributor of Crane papers who is  
> well known to this forum.
> He commented on some of the concerns beta testers have seen with  
> the coating on Silver
> Rag.  He said that a beta run is used to fine tune the mfg process,  
> and that he felt the
> coater must have been fine tuning the air knifes that distribute  
> the coating - thus some of
> the batch had a worse coating than others.  Sounds as though we  
> shouldn't write off the
> coating quality until production paper is available.
>
> just fyi.  Thanks for posting your test results.
>
> Josh
>
>
> --- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, Carl Schofield  
> <scho@m...>
> wrote:
>>
>> No, it doesn't look like cotton paper.  It has more sheen/gloss
>> compared to Hahnemuhle PR Satin and Premier Luster Rag and is close
>> to the soft gloss of an air dried silver FB print, but because the
>> coating is thin and uneven there are annoying differential
>> reflections when viewed under oblique lighting (this is also visible
>> on an unprinted sheet).  So, sort of a GD problem, but in this case
>> not because of the pigment inks but rather the thin paper coating
>> that shows the paper texture.  This can be minimized by spraying or
>> waxing the prints, but I don't want to have to deal with that.  If I
>> look at the back side of a sheet of HPR, silver rag, and one of my
>> Oriental Seagull silver FB prints they all look similar in terms of
>> texture, but the printing surfaces are a different story.  They need
>> to put a smoother and slightly thicker coating on the silver rag to
>> eliminate the GD problem.  Other things I didn't like about this beta
>> paper were:  Too stiff - need to uncurl before printing or will get
>> head slap on edges in the 2400.  Paper color is too warm for my
>> tastes (although non-OBA paper lovers will like the color) - I'm
>> doing all of my comparisons to prints I made on Oriental Seagull air
>> dried FB which has a bright white color (and still does after 30+
>> years) with a SMOOTH soft gloss.  The silver rag paper base and
>> coating are slightly acidic, based on results from my pH paper
>> testing pen with the samples I received.
>>
>> Carl
>>
>> On Jan 3, 2006, at 2:39 PM, Steve Kale wrote:
>>
>>> Very nice.  And this looks like a cotton paper?  I know it has a
>>> cotton base
>>> but can you still see that it's cotton or does it look more RC-like?
>>>
>>>
>>>> From: Carl Schofield <scho@m...>
>>>
>>>>
>>>> Dmax 2.3 with MIS K4 PK in an Epson 2400.
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>> I'm getting up to 2.39D for K3 ( 0.05D for paper). It's on a  
>>>> regular
>>>> print with ABW.
>>>
>>>> Pawel
>>>