Satin paper and acryl mount?

[Hening Bettermann]

Hi!

I have discovered a print service in Germany that offers Acrylic/Dibond mounting at a price that others take for Dibond alone. 
https://www.digitaldruck-fabrik.de/werbeschilder/gallery-print.aspx.
But they don't accept customer-supplied prints. They offer only 1 paper: Schoeller H 62210 Ultra Satin 240. My concern is the "satin". In the technical data, the gloss is described as BYK(60°) ISO 2813: 19 - some of you might know what that means. The printer is a HP DesignJet Z6810.

Does it make sense to use acryl mounting to achieve the ultimate in glow and at the same time sacrifice contrast range with a satin paper?

Ultimately I will have to try, but that is not quite that straightforward. My hitherto print service has done the print sharpening. For a fair comparison, I would need to buy and learn QImage. So maybe some of you would have viewpoints on this?

Add on: The paper I would compare with is Epson Premium Glossy.

[Ernst Dinkla]

An offer you can't refuse. Order an A4 piece I would say.

Check the clarity of the acrylic too, it is an extruded version where other companies might offer a cast PMMA.  It could well be that extruded today is as good optically.

http://www.pmma.dk/acryl_stobt_kontra_ekstruderet.aspx?Lang=en-GB

The OBA's in the paper are not as low as the specs PDF suggest, Lab b -7 in my measurements.

I doubt the satin texture of the paper has much influence in the final product. It is fine texture and the two sided mounting film easily fills that texture. That film + the acrylic will create the gloss effect. Ask for an ICC printer profile of the total (if they have that) so you know the gamut and dynamic range for editing.

Met vriendelijke groet, Ernst

http://www.pigment-print.com/spectralplots/spectrumviz_1.htm
March 2017 update, 750+ inkjet media white spectral plots

[Wayne Fox]

Does it make sense to use acryl mounting to achieve the ultimate in glow and at the same time sacrifice contrast range with a satin paper?

Not sure about that paper, but the lamination to acrylic when face mounting pretty much eliminates all the surface characteristics of the paper,  I found the Epson Premium semi matte actually gave me better results than epson premium glossy, once face mounted there were not any differences in contrast or saturation, but the “tooth” of the semi matte gave me a better bond and I found I had less slivering than with the glossy. It’s really hard to tell the difference between the semi matte face mounted and FujiFlex, which is about the glossiest and smoothest paper out there, once they are both face mounted.

[BrianBeauban]

In this instance by applying a thick glossy surface in direct contact with the print you negate the effects of the paper surface. You gain the "wet out effect" where color saturation and contrast actually show a gain so now the print surface is actually the surface of the acrylic. The same effect can be achieved by laminating with a thick (5mil to 10mil) polyester gloss laminate. For those of you on the metric system a mil in this case is .001 inches.
5 mils = .005" = 125 microns.

[Hening Bettermann]

Many thanks to all the three of you for your detailed answers! This sounds like good news to me. The Acryl is in fact extruded. I have now asked for an ICC profile for soft proofing (does not appear on their web site), and if they offer a profile, I'll go on with this.

[Ernst Dinkla]

In this instance by applying a thick glossy surface in direct contact with the print you negate the effects of the paper surface. You gain the "wet out effect" where color saturation and contrast actually show a gain so now the print surface is actually the surface of the acrylic. The same effect can be achieved by laminating with a thick (5mil to 10mil) polyester gloss laminate. For those of you on the metric system a mil in this case is .001 inches.
5 mils = .005" = 125 microns.

Which would allow them to create an ICC printer profile that matches thé face mounted version more of less.

Ernst, op de lei getypt.

[Hening Bettermann]

But they don't. They don't offer profiles for download. "We work with too many machines and materials that are beeing constantly adjusted." So this is a no go.