It’s Here!

[Justan]

Okay so I cracked the mighty Z3100 out of it’s formidable shipping container, got it set up, worked through the color calibration, worked through the paper profiling, worked through the HP provided document on printing with Photoshop and danged if this little puppy doesn’t produce some pretty snappy output!

I've been using the HP supplied paper for the moment. This produces nice output but the paper is so stiff it could be used as leaf springs on a truck. I'm looking for a suitable paper for doing tests.

Am I going to get a reasonable result by doing my study prints with other than premium archive paper? What do others here use for what amounts to tests?

[Mussi_Spectraflow]

They have a new paper out called "everyday inkjet pigment paper" pretty low cost, decent quality.

[walter.sk]

Congratulations!

One of the least expensive but good quality papers is the HP Premium Instant Dry Satin.  It can be had on the web for well under $100 for a 24"x75' roll.  When testing, I print two 8.5x11 prints, end-to-end so that they take up 22" of a 24"x8.5" paper size, with the printer set up to eliminat the white space above and below the print.  The cost per picture is low, and if you make borders around the images in Photoshop and stroke the edges with black you'll have easy cutting lines where you want them.

The paper has very good color and dynamic range.

[Justan]

Thanks so much for the quick replies and the congratulatory note! This site is such a fabulous resource!! I've read a few articles at this site and am already months ahead of where I’d be without it.

I found the HP Everyday Pigment Ink Satin Photo Paper 24"x100’ roll for a mere 39.99. Bought a roll and am sure it will be great for testing.

Then I caved to a moment of indulgence in the name of saving the shipping cost and bought a roll of “HP Hahnemühle Textured Fine Art Paper 310gsm 24" x 35'.” Now I have HP premium plus gloss, satin, and the Hahnemühle paper.

But I have yet another question: Why the heck do they sell the paper in these odd lengths? The HP premium stuff comes in 50’ lengths and the Hahnemühle comes in 35 foot lengths? What the h… is up with that?

[Geoff Wittig]

Thanks so much for the quick replies and the congratulatory note! This site is such a fabulous resource!! I've read a few articles at this site and am already months ahead of where I’d be without it.

I found the HP Everyday Pigment Ink Satin Photo Paper 24"x100’ roll for a mere 39.99. Bought a roll and am sure it will be great for testing.

Then I caved to a moment of indulgence in the name of saving the shipping cost and bought a roll of “HP Hahnemühle Textured Fine Art Paper 310gsm 24" x 35'.” Now I have HP premium plus gloss, satin, and the Hahnemühle paper.

But I have yet another question: Why the heck do they sell the paper in these odd lengths? The HP premium stuff comes in 50’ lengths and the Hahnemühle comes in 35 foot lengths? What the h… is up with that?

Hahnemüle is a German company, and produces paper in rolls that are usually 12 meters long, which works out to slightly more than 39 feet. Epson instead produces 50 foot and 100 foot rolls for the American market, and HP also sells 50 foot rolls of papers like their Professional satin.

I found myself using Epson premium luster paper on my Z3100 for proofing/testing and for production work where hand-feel doesn't matter very much (like mounted panoramics). In 100 foot rolls it's quite economical and the resulting d-max and color gamut are very good.

Don't expect a fantastic gamut or very dark d-max from the HP Hahnemüle textured fine art paper; but for the right kind of image the textured watercolor paper look is lovely.

[petermarrek]

I regularily print on HM textured paper and coat it with 2-3 layers of lustre ar gloss varnish. Really bumps up the contrast & saturation, same with matte canvas.

[Justan]

> Hahnemüle is a German company, and produces paper in rolls that are usually 12 meters long, which works out to slightly more than 39 feet.

I can see measuring in meters rather than feet. I don’t understand why the materials aren’t sold in 50’ lengths or more. There could easily be reasons, such as fragile material. But the length seems impractical if only from the perspective of efficiency in packaging and handling…. Anyway, I wondered if this was perhaps a standard length in accordance with an old tradition, or ??

> I found myself using Epson premium luster paper on my Z3100 for proofing/testing and for production work where hand-feel doesn't matter very much (like mounted panoramics). In 100 foot rolls it's quite economical and the resulting d-max and color gamut are very good.

Thanks for the tip!

> Don't expect a fantastic gamut or very dark d-max from the HP Hahnemüle textured fine art paper;

You raised a key question. Which papers offer first rate gamut and dark d-max but with a textured finish?

> but for the right kind of image the textured watercolor paper look is lovely.

While I admit to knowing nothing about the gamut or d max of the paper, the goal was a to give a muted finish for a time lapse sunrise scene and also some wildflower scenes. It is fun to learn something about the materials!

[Dan Wells]

Many of the Hahnenuhle papers are very thick, and I would imagine that the full roll diameter is an issue. The core is over 3 inches (3 inches inside diameter, ~3.5 inches outside), and the roll holder will only take up to someplace around 6 inches in total. That isn't that many layers of really thick paper! Thin papers that are sold in 100 foot lengths are often flexible enough to go on a 2 inch core, plus you can get a lot more layers wrapped around before building up the diameter too big. I'm sure that Hahnemuhle could get 15 or 20 meter lengths of many of their papers on the roll, but it's easier for them to deal with one length, and 12 meters is all they can fit of their thicker media.

                                                -Dan

[walter.sk]

Then I caved to a moment of indulgence in the name of saving the shipping cost and bought a roll of “HP Hahnemühle Textured Fine Art Paper 310gsm 24" x 35'.” Now I have HP premium plus gloss, satin, and the Hahnemühle paper.

Some people don't like the textured papers, but I love the HP Hahnemuhle TFAP in the 310gsm weight.  One word, though:  Using my Z3100 with the Advanced Profiling Solution I do not get a profile as good in shadow detail as the one that HP has for that paper.  For a mat paper, though, the dynamic range and the blacks are pretty impressive.

I find the texture looks great on landscape images with moody content, such as fog, clouds, ocean, etc.  Not so great on portraits, in my opinion.  Sunsets really gain a sort of depth from the texture.

[neil snape]

Many of the Hahnenuhle papers are very thick, and I would imagine that the full roll diameter is an issue. The core is over 3 inches (3 inches inside diameter, ~3.5 inches outside), and the roll holder will only take up to someplace around 6 inches in total. That isn't that many layers of really thick paper! Thin papers that are sold in 100 foot lengths are often flexible enough to go on a 2 inch core, plus you can get a lot more layers wrapped around before building up the diameter too big. I'm sure that Hahnemuhle could get 15 or 20 meter lengths of many of their papers on the roll, but it's easier for them to deal with one length, and 12 meters is all they can fit of their thicker media.

                                                -Dan

I'm not an expert in paper making but did meet a bunch that do or still do work for/with Hahnemuhle.
Some papers actually are more difficult to keep up to spec over long runs due to the way they are made, the way the fibres line up etc, so decisions for run length are more often than not a compromise on the intended spec of the paper.
So RC papers, cellulose, other media bases are easy to do but cotton rag ,  textured extra heavy weight , speciality art papers are more of a challenge to produce with flawless run lengths , combined of course with the spindle diameter vs thickness noted above.

[Ernst Dinkla]

Many of the Hahnenuhle papers are very thick, and I would imagine that the full roll diameter is an issue. The core is over 3 inches (3 inches inside diameter, ~3.5 inches outside), and the roll holder will only take up to someplace around 6 inches in total. That isn't that many layers of really thick paper! Thin papers that are sold in 100 foot lengths are often flexible enough to go on a 2 inch core, plus you can get a lot more layers wrapped around before building up the diameter too big. I'm sure that Hahnemuhle could get 15 or 20 meter lengths of many of their papers on the roll, but it's easier for them to deal with one length, and 12 meters is all they can fit of their thicker media.

                                                -Dan

There have been longer HM lengths available. 25 meters for example. Innova uses 15 meters.


Ernst Dinkla

Try: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Wide_Inkjet_Printers/