Digital BW, The Print

For those of you with Spectratone Dmax envy - and to prove Tyler's point
that my real life ended when I bought my first spectrophotometer, here is a
quick list of Dmax measurements for various papers and the Spectratone
inkset for the Epson Stylus 3000 printed with the standard RGB driver set on
backlight film.  Note that just because it has a high Dmax I don't
necessarily recommend it -- some of the clay papers print with a really
strange reddish cast (except Crane Museo which prints with a really strange
cyanish cast just to be different).  However, a lot of the clay coated
mattes and watercolors that aren't recommended by Lincoln Inks and Papers
(longevity issues I think) look really nice after they finish curing for a
few days.  The Arches papers listed are *not* the "bright white" variety.
Not sure if the Bulldog Photorag is still available but it is a gelatin
paper with a rather nice very light pebble finish much smoother than the Oce
texture (but it was hugely expensive a few years ago when I bought it).
Need to do further work with this one!   Konica QP and Tetenal have a high
Dmax but print horribly reddish with these inks.  The Ilford Glossy is still
king at 2.32 and spotlessly neutral.  Haven't yet tried any of my hand
coated (Knox gelatin) varieties with Spectratones but I would bet they do
well.

Arches Hot Press  Dmax 1.44
Arches Cold Press Dmax 1.43
Oce Watercolor Dmax 1.41
Jet Drive Artist Watercolor 140lb  Dmax 1.41
Bulldog Photorag Dmax 1.45
Somerset Velvet Uncoated Dmax 1.40
Somerset Velvet Enhanced Dmax 1.62
Hawk Mountain Red Tail Rag Dmax 1.41
Ilford Glossy   Dmax 2.32
Jet Drive Mailbu    Dmax 1.93
Hahnemuhle Photo Gloss  Dmax 1.87
Media Street Dual Sided Matte Dmax 1.79
Pictorio Photo Glossy Dmax 1.98
Glacier Photo Matte Dmax 1.80
Concorde Rag Dmax 1.69 (printed with the Glossy Paper setting)
Crane Museo Dmax 1.82
Repeatotype Picture Perfect Dmax 1.93
Weber Valentine GWCS 250 Dmax 1.44
Hahnemuhle Photo Matte Dmax 1.73
Great White Imaging and Photo Dmax 1.54 (el cheapo drugstore paper)
Weber Valentine 770 HGC Dmax 1.64
Konica QP Dmax 2.22
Tetenal Spectrajet High Glossy Dmax 2.28

One final hedge -- some of the papers, like the Oce Watercolor and Somerset
Velvet Enhanced, *appear* to be darker in the shadow regions than a simple
Dmax reading would seem to indicate (comparatively).  This mostly has to do
with the paper fiber showing through on some papers with similar Dmax
readings.  Thus Arches Hot Press, with a slightly higher Dmax than Somerset
Velvet uncoated doesn't appear nearly as dark in the shadow regions right up
to the Dmax where the paper is fully saturated with ink and the fiber is no
longer evident.  Somerset Velvet has a surface quality that avoids show
through of the paper fiber and gives a better shadow region though not a
deeper Dmax.  So sometimes it ain't how Dmax it is, it is how you use it (or
something like that).

Dan Culbertson

Now that is a lot of testing info Dan, I'm 
saving this post.

One of the very difficult things to resolve 
was the variation in hue of the Spectratones 
on different media.  As it turned out, the 
theta set (only one released to the public) 
shows very good neutrals on all of the media 
that I recommed as rock solid stability.

And, on the media it doesn't last long on, 
some rather wide color variations to which I 
don't even want to try and figure out, 
especially clay coated media.

Again, thanks for the hard numbers.  I just 
eyeball my stepwedges as a perceptual kind 
of guy anymore.  I go by "if it feels good, 
it's good".  I concur with your observations 
on d-max not being the whole enchilada, 
especially on art type papers.

Allen Maertz
lincolninks.com


Message: 13
   Date: Thu, 02 Aug 2001 20:04:58 -0700

   From: Dan Culbertson <
danculb@...>
Subject: Spectratone Dmax Envy

For those of you with Spectratone Dmax 
envy - and to prove Tyler's point
that my real life ended when I bought my 
first spectrophotometer, here is a
quick list of Dmax measurements for various 
papers and the Spectratone
inkset for the Epson Stylus 3000 printed 
with the standard RGB driver set on
backlight film.  Note that just because it has a 
high Dmax I don't
necessarily recommend it -- some of the clay 
papers print with a really
strange reddish cast (except Crane Museo 
which prints with a really strange
cyanish cast just to be different).  However, 
a lot of the clay coated
mattes and watercolors that aren't 
recommended by Lincoln Inks and Papers
(longevity issues I think) look really nice 
after they finish curing for a
few days.  The Arches papers listed are *
not* the "bright white" variety.
Not sure if the Bulldog Photorag is still 
available but it is a gelatin
paper with a rather nice very light pebble 
finish much smoother than the Oce
texture (but it was hugely expensive a few 
years ago when I bought it).
Need to do further work with this one!   
Konica QP and Tetenal have a high
Dmax but print horribly reddish with these 
inks.  The Ilford Glossy is still
king at 2.32 and spotlessly neutral.  Haven't 
yet tried any of my hand
coated (Knox gelatin) varieties with 
Spectratones but I would bet they do
well.
<snip>