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Author Topic: Review of new Ilford "Gold" papers  (Read 3235 times)

BarbaraArmstrong

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Review of new Ilford "Gold" papers
« on: May 08, 2013, 05:28:43 pm »

Wow!  Many thanks for this review, with all the accompanying detail.  Not only does a photograph deserve to be printed, but I believe that the ones that will last, as we move into the future of changed technologies and the erosion of time, are the ones that are printed.  This review warrants (at least for me) a second, and doubtless even a third reading, and I will print it out for continuing future reference.  One of the joys of printing is the opportunity to try new papers (or canvases).  Printing brings a smile to my face.  Thanks for this invitation to more fun!  --Barbara
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Alan Goldhammer

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Re: Review of new Ilford "Gold" papers
« Reply #1 on: May 08, 2013, 05:51:52 pm »

It would be good to know what setting of the Epson ABW print driver was used to make the B/W print (my eyes may too bleary from reading too many Adobe CC posts and maybe it was covered).  I've found that there are significant differences in using neutral, dark or darker in terms of shadow detail and contrast.  Perhaps the results compared to the custom profiles are affected by this.  You also have to remember that even if the deeper black is not visually detectable, the whole B/W spectral response is extended.  I'm able to see a difference in step wedge prints between the ABW and normal print driver.  I will not go into the use of ABW profiles since MacOS users can no longer take advantage of these (though they can achieve a similar result through the use of an appropriate curve adjustment though it's a little more cumbersome to implement). 

Anyway thanks for the review, I'll see if Ilford has a sample pack of these new papers to see how they perform on my 3880.

Alan
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Mark D Segal

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Re: Review of new Ilford "Gold" papers
« Reply #2 on: May 08, 2013, 07:32:48 pm »

Barbara: you are welcome, glad you find it helpful.

Alan: Standard settings: Neutral. Interesting observation.
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Mark D Segal (formerly MarkDS)
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Alan Goldhammer

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Re: Review of new Ilford "Gold" papers
« Reply #3 on: May 08, 2013, 08:18:40 pm »

Barbara: you are welcome, glad you find it helpful.

Alan: Standard settings: Neutral. Interesting observation.
It does make a difference.  When Eric Chan was still making ABW profiles all of his settings for the 3880 were either dark or darker.  I tend to use dark with my ABW profiles.  There is also an excellent discussion on the ABW driver by Giorgio Trucco.  He discusses the highlights and shadows issue.  When you did your profiling of the papers did you include some B/W patches?  I've found that this is helpful if one is going to print B/W using the normal driver and an ICC.  I usually include a 51 step B/W patch set in my profiles and those I do for others.  I find that this also helps improve the B/W print if one prefers the normal driver.  Of course the latter approach is operating system agnostic since both the Mac and Win OS use the same approach to printing using normal ICCs.

Alan
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Mark D Segal

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Re: Review of new Ilford "Gold" papers
« Reply #4 on: May 08, 2013, 08:41:54 pm »

Alan, to put this in context, it wasn't a primary purpose of the review to get into an exhaustive analysis of Epson's ABW driver. That comparison was put there just to show what happens if a user were to use GMS with the standard settings of the ABW driver and our observations are what we saw on paper. So yes, had we gone into the variants you mention here it's quite possible the outcomes would have been marginally more differentiated. And yes, I've seen in days gone by all the very respectable literature from Eric and Giorgio on ABW. For all the other work where ICC profiles are used, the target used to generate the profiles is the 729 patch X-Rite target for the Pulse Elite, and of course it includes grayscale patches.
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Mark D Segal (formerly MarkDS)
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BernardLanguillier

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Re: Review of new Ilford "Gold" papers
« Reply #5 on: May 09, 2013, 12:10:18 am »

Thanks a lot indeed, very interesting read!

I have just finished printing a B&W series on gold silk with ABW on the 9900, so this is very timely!

Cheers,
Bernard

VidJa

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Re: Review of new Ilford "Gold" papers
« Reply #6 on: May 10, 2013, 03:22:24 pm »

Thanks for the review. I'm not in a position to print that much and fiddling around with different papers and printers is way out of my budget, so this this was very timely. I'll try a package of gfs, if i can get it (all sold out at the local store)
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Ernst Dinkla

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Re: Review of new Ilford "Gold" papers
« Reply #7 on: May 13, 2013, 03:44:40 am »

Mark, Michael, thank you for the review.

There has been a short thread on the Mono paper half a year ago.
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/forum/index.php?topic=70745.0
On the Mono the review confirms what I found in the Ilford data and wrote about.
I have some Mono samples now and will add the spectral plot of the paper in SpectrumViz soon.

Packaging has not been mentioned in the review, there have been complaints lately of Ilford Prestige range sheet packaging. Of sheets I only have the samples packages and they could have been better. On roll packaging I can not complain, was done well for an RC paper roll.

Edit, a new thread caused by second thoughts about the review:
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/forum/index.php?topic=78352.0

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Met vriendelijke groet, Ernst

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December 2012, 500+ inkjet media white spectral plots.
« Last Edit: May 14, 2013, 11:36:35 am by Ernst Dinkla »
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