Which grade/hardness to number prints with?

[Box Brownie]

I naively thought that my HB pencil I had to hand would be OK on the Canson Platine and Fotospeed Pearl I am intending to number, however this grade hardly leaves a mark!!!

It makes me think I  need a much softer pencil such as a 2B or 3B....................but no to limited idea really 

So, hence the question:-
Which grade of pencil is most suitable for doing the job?

TIA for the insight and advice

[elliot_n]

4B

[Mark D Segal]

I asked advice of my neighbourhood stationery shop and he recommended Staedtler Mars Lumograph 6B, which I bought and use successfully for this purpose, of course on the back of the paper. Works well on both rag and alpha cellulose substrates.

[Alan Goldhammer]

I use a Pigma Micron pen that contains pigment ink - https://sakuraofamerica.com/pen-archival  It flows nicely and you don't need a lot of pressure to write with it.

[howardm]

+1 on the Pigma Micron pens.

[Mark D Segal]

Does it soak through the paper at all?

[JeanMichel]

ITOYA fine point pigmented ink (0.4) works well.

[Alan Goldhammer]

Does it soak through the paper at all?

Not in my experience

[Box Brownie]

Many thanks gents for all the answers & insights.

@Mark D Segal ~ rather writing on the reverse I am talking about the face border area for edition numbering.

The wisdom I read is that pencil is best for such numbering rather than permanent ink of any sort.

I have a decent stationery store in my local bigger town so will seek out the Staedtler Mars Lumograph 6B or similar.

NB though I do have some paper samples from the printers I used so best to take them with me and see how well it/they take?

[Mark D Segal]

Many thanks gents for all the answers & insights.
..........

NB though I do have some paper samples from the printers I used so best to take them with me and see how well it/they take?

Sounds better than risking a real print!

[MHMG]

The wisdom I read is that pencil is best for such numbering rather than permanent ink of any sort.

Pencils generally don't work well at all on coated luster/glossy papers, so you'd have to sign on back as Mark S. suggested, or move to a pigment pen like the Sakura Pigma Micron or Staedler pigment liner pens as Alan Goldhammer recommended. Famous 20th century photographers like Ansel Adams did sign on front with pencil, but they had to sign the mount not the photo itself. That's another option, but it adds other conservation related issues (e.g., damaged mount board cannot be replaced if it's signed).

Matte fine art media like Moab Entrada take a standard #2 pencil very well, but other media like Hahnemulhe Photo Rag will benefit from a softer hardness like the 4b, so I agree with others suggesting that testing out various pens and pencils on some scraps of the media of your choice is the way to go here.

cheers,
Mark
http://Http://www.aardenburg-imaging.com

[Box Brownie]

I am getting a deeper appreciation of that different papers will need different 'marking' materials.

1) any coated papers ~ Platine, Pearl, Baryta(all of the variants?)..........and of course Gloss and similar high sheen surfaces ~ will need a pigment ink pen.

2) any uncoated papers ~ Matt types................will be OK with any form of pencil, though perhaps a softer 2B or softer might give a look?

In the case my current prints I will have to use a pigment ink pen, arguably a very fine line one.  But a thought struck me as one of the criticisms I read to using ink rather than pencil was that and ink writing could be easily copied whereas pencil was harder to copy?

The thought was to use a stylus first to impress the paper and then use the fine line pigment pen to 'fill it in'?

I know I am overthinking this but that is the way my brain works, as in this case pencil poor/unworkable therefore how to make the numbering have a slight uniqueness akin to the advantages of using pencil???

[Ernst Dinkla]

6B is the type of pencil I keep stocked for my customers when they sign here. German Etching, PhotoRag etc.


Met vriendelijke groet, Ernst

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