Luminous Landscape Forum

Raw & Post Processing, Printing => Printing: Printers, Papers and Inks => Topic started by: johncustodio on June 15, 2007, 10:32:21 pm

Title: Z3100 Hahnemuehle Photo Rag Pearl
Post by: johncustodio on June 15, 2007, 10:32:21 pm
I just tried Hahnemuehle Photo Rag Pearl on my Z3100 using the Fine Art Pearl (more ink) paper type. This seems like a very nice paper except the Dmax is quite low for a semi-gloss paper measuring 1.82 on my Eye-One spectro.

By way of partial comparison, the Dmax of Hahnemuehle Fine Art Pearl printed on my (now retired) Epson 4000 using Studio Print was 2.08, still low for this kind of paper, but better than 1.82.

Has anyone tried either of these papers on the Z with similar or better Dmax?

BTW, I had no problems with the Photo Rag Pearl as far as pizza wheel marks or buckling.

-John
Title: Z3100 Hahnemuehle Photo Rag Pearl
Post by: Ernst Dinkla on June 16, 2007, 08:11:37 am
Quote
I just tried Hahnemuehle Photo Rag Pearl on my Z3100 using the Fine Art Pearl (more ink) paper type. This seems like a very nice paper except the Dmax is quite low for a semi-gloss paper measuring 1.82 on my Eye-One spectro.

By way of partial comparison, the Dmax of Hahnemuehle Fine Art Pearl printed on my (now retired) Epson 4000 using Studio Print was 2.08, still low for this kind of paper, but better than 1.82.

Has anyone tried either of these papers on the Z with similar or better Dmax?

BTW, I had no problems with the Photo Rag Pearl as far as pizza wheel marks or buckling.

-John
[{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a] (http://index.php?act=findpost&pid=123059\")

With Innova F type gloss (early box of that paper) I can get between 1.98 and 2.05 D with the Fine Art Pearl media choice + greyscale but GE off. Some fluctuation for with and without using the Fine Art Pearl profile in Qimage. With GE on it must be higher and still keep the paper texture, at least that is what I see with color prints on that paper.

The coating of the paper I have is soft and I see marks of the paper transport rolls in my opinion and not of the pizza wheels. Where visible they are continuous lines of varying width that show less gloss than the rest of the print. Typical pressure marks of one of the edges of the transport rollers. Not visible where no ink lands. Doesn't disappear with GE on as I have noticed with color prints. The water resistance of this paper + the Z3100 inks is low too, not in the category of HP's RC papers or Hahnemühle's matt coatings. It wasn't better with the MIS inks I used with an Epson so this box goes back into a drawer again.


Ernst Dinkla

try: [a href=\"http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Wide_Inkjet_Printers/]http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Wide_Inkjet_Printers/[/url]
Title: Z3100 Hahnemuehle Photo Rag Pearl
Post by: johncustodio on June 18, 2007, 12:48:59 pm
I've done some further testing, this time on Innova Semi-matte. Dmax using the Fine Art Pearl (more ink) media type was 2.14. On my Epson 4000 with Studio Print I got 2.5. To see if another media type would yield different results I tried the HP
Premium ID Satin media type with the same results. So it seems that for both these papers either the media types need to be modified or maybe the HP ink just isn't capable of producing as great a Dmax as the Epson ink.  However, in spite of the lower Dmax, both these papers still look good, it just would be better if they could attain the extra .30. BTW, the Dmax on HP Premium ID Satin paper is around 2.36.

Neither the Hahnemuehle Photo Rag Pearl nor the Innova Semi-matte exhibited any pizza wheel marks or any kind of buckling. However I did notice some mottling on the Innova in 3/4 tone gray areas when I used the HP Premium ID Satin media type. When I used the Fine Art Pearl (more ink) media type, the problem disappeared.

-John
Title: Z3100 Hahnemuehle Photo Rag Pearl
Post by: Geoff Wittig on June 18, 2007, 01:03:16 pm
I don't have the equipment to actually measure D-max, but for what it's worth I like the appearance of Crane silver rag profiled via the built-in spectro with the fine art pearl (more ink) paper preset. Blacks seem pretty deep, but the warm tone of the paper base does kill my preference for cooler highlights in black & white prints. It really only works for warm-toned prints, at least in my hands.

I did try using Hahnemuhle fine art pearl with the same preset, but got a head strike right in the middle of a 13x19" print despite use of the higher print head height, so this paper is relegated to my Epson 2400. The blacks on Hahnemuhle fine art pearl also don't look as deep as what I get using the Z3100 on (ironically enough) Epson premium luster paper.
Title: Z3100 Hahnemuehle Photo Rag Pearl
Post by: Ernst Dinkla on June 18, 2007, 03:17:37 pm
Quote
I've done some further testing, this time on Innova Semi-matte. Dmax using the Fine Art Pearl (more ink) media type was 2.14. On my Epson 4000 with Studio Print I got 2.5. To see if another media type would yield different results I tried the HP
Premium ID Satin media type with the same results. So it seems that for both these papers either the media types need to be modified or maybe the HP ink just isn't capable of producing as great a Dmax as the Epson ink.  However, in spite of the lower Dmax, both these papers still look good, it just would be better if they could attain the extra .30. BTW, the Dmax on HP Premium ID Satin paper is around 2.36.

Neither the Hahnemuehle Photo Rag Pearl nor the Innova Semi-matte exhibited any pizza wheel marks or any kind of buckling. However I did notice some mottling on the Innova in 3/4 tone gray areas when I used the HP Premium ID Satin media type. When I used the Fine Art Pearl (more ink) media type, the problem disappeared.

-John
[{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a] (http://index.php?act=findpost&pid=123555\")

According to the HP PDF for third party paper use there's little difference in ink limit comparing the two satin media settings versus the two Fine Art Pearl settings. The head height differs, could be that drying time differs but both use 16 passes bidirectional weaving.

Given a higher ink limit and enough drying time (unidirectional for example) you may get a higher Dmax with a RIP but it will be difficult to get that with the fixed media settings of the driver.

The ink limit numbers as printed in that PDF do not specify the limits, could be overall, average or max. At least for matt Hahnemühle papers the color gamut was better so far for me with Matt Litho-Realistic (42 ink limit) than with Fine Art Paper (60 ink limit) but the last has better Dmax, the last uses the Quad set so the extra 18 units in the limit could be the PK.

With the firmware/driver changes it will be difficult to keep track of the best media settings in time.

Ernst Dinkla

try: [a href=\"http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Wide_Inkjet_Printers/]http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Wide_Inkjet_Printers/[/url]