Printing, even if just to look at for a day or two before throwing it in a box, is a joy for me. I wouldn't get all moral about completing the photographic process and so on, but seeing it on paper is a different experience. And handing someone a print as a little present is a good thing too :-)
Ay Graham, I have several A3+ boxes full of what I thought delightful prints off the HP B 9180. All on Hahnemeuhle, Photo Rag Bright White (pace Keith!) and predominantly in black and white. Each resides within the appropriate Silverprint Polyester Archival Print Sleeve and cost me a small fortune to create.
Seen within said sleeve, the quality is pretty damned close to what I'd expect from a straight glossy print made via my darkrooms of yore, were I then printing in the more sombre tonality that I now like... On the fond assumption, borne out in practice, that behind glass the prints would satisfy me, I was surprisingly happy with the status quo. Then HP abandoned the format.
But, outwith the sleeves, the prints look decidedly dull. I did try using HP's glossy paper, but the inks, the inks: gold plate had nothing on it.
I only used matt papers in the wet days out of curiosity and abandoned them almost right away: they couldn't look a real, full-toned glossy (actually glazed, not air-dried) in the face.
So yes, despite now no longer printing, I do have a bit of a clue how to do it, just choose not to if it means a constant 'upgrade' of technology (at my expense) every three years or thereabouts. As with all things temporal, were there actually real money to be found at the end of the trials and tribulations rainbow, then I'd gladly invest. I have just realised that those pictures have not escaped their cardboard tombs since, several years ago, my granddaughters wanted to see what I used to do when I was alive. Today, as of this writing, the boxes were moved sideways so that I could see how to spell Hahnemeuhle - which always escapes me if it's to be a memory-dependent trick. That little movement may give them false hope, aka my revenge.
;-)
Rob
P.S.
Bullshit: I just realised that no, the pictures reside inside the cardboard boxes in which the Hahne was shipped! Sleeved, they no longer fit. No wonder I gather so much junk.