This is a cut/paste over from GetDPI from my experience with the new Lexjet metallic and Red River metallic medias: "Red River Paper has released their new Polar Pearl Metallic paper, and it is hyped up to be similar to Kodak's Endura Metallic. I picked up a 24" roll and am printing test images on my Epson 9800. A 24" x 100 roll is about US$236.
In a nutshell: The RR Polar Pearl shares some similarities with the Kodak Metallic, but it's not quite an exact replacement. Kodak's Metallic still has quite a bit more zing to it, and still remains quite unique. To be fair, the Polar Pearl does seem to be more "color balanced" and probably more suitable for portraits, and less prone to blow out the highlights as the Kodak Metallic is known to do if not careful. If it makes any sense, the Polar Pearl has more of a "gentle" metallic characteristic, thus "pearl." The surface of the Polar Pearl Metallic is a somewhat fragile paper, though probably not quite as much as Harman's Baryta. Spraying with Premier Art Shield is probably not recommended. The paper surface is very smooth and shiny; spraying leaves a light gritty feel. No idea as to longevity or archivability, though with pigmented inks we'll probably all be long gone or in retirement homes and unable to recall what the initial image looked like in the first place. (Guy will still be buying a new MFDB every other year...)
Lexjet is also releasing their Sunset Metallic Paper---which coincidentally is also a 10 mil, 255 gm paper like the Red River Polar Pearl. I'm placing bets it's the same paper but with a different label. Lexjet is more expensive (no surprise) and costs US$279 for a 24" x 100 roll. I have a 10" x 100 roll from Lexjet coming in soon. Both Lexjet and Red River will offer rolls up to 44" wide----so this is the big news in terms of offering something "similar" to Kodak Metallic without the 30" wide limitation. The RR Polar Pearl Metallic Paper looks good for both color and B&W images. At the very least, it is a good "glossy" media option. I'd expect similar of Lexjet's offering. I'm inclined to keep a 10" roll and 44" roll on hand in studio.
Lexjet says it is not really possible to generate an icc printer profile on their metallic, though Imageprint has one for Lexjet's paper I am told. Red River provides an icc printer profile and it does seem to be accurate. Again, if the the papers are the same, you can probably use the Red River icc profile on the Lexjet paper brand. I haven't tried generating my own icc profiles with Spyder 3 Print." The thread link:
http://forum.getdpi.com/forum/showthread.php?t=11941And now my UPDATE:
I'm positive these two metallic wanna-be papers are the SAME. Is it the oh-so coincidental 255 gm 10 mil similarity that tipped me off? well, maybe. But the clincher is that both rolls use that same damned white tape to secure the paper roll end onto the media---which literally has stronger adhesive properties than duct tape, forcing you to lose the first 12-17" of media because it is impossible to remove without damaging the paper where the tape has adhered. Whoever is the packing manufacturer needs to take some packing lessons from the folks over at Hahnemuhle. If you're a knuckle-dragger and like fixing things with duct tape, then you really need to find some of this adhesive white tape they use here---it makes duct tape look like Scotch magic tape.
I printed up one image on both the 24" Red River roll and the 10" roll of Lexjet. I cannot see a difference. I think the claims of being a carbon copy to Kodak's Endura metallic are more hype---or over-claims (is that a word?). Both share "metallic" qualities and are quite nice, but they are not Kodak Metallic clones. How about "super glossy replacement with metallic qualities?" Red River sells their Polar Pearl for less than Lexjet---no surprise, but only Lexjet offers the 10" rolls. Red River tells me that they will be offering 44" rolls soon. (I don't print sheets).
Oh---so the big TIP here is try using the icc printer profiles from Red River's Polar Pearl Metallic----it works fine on the Sunset Metallic paper. (I haven't tried generating my own profiles with Spyder 3 Print).
See the right hand column:
http://www.redrivercatalog.com/browse/66lb...hoto-paper.htmlKen
p.s. I'm told that Lexjet will soon be posting icc profiles that they have been working on for their Sunset Metallic.
