Epson Hot Press Bright Is it double sided?

[huguito]

I have a box of sheets of this paper laying around my office, I normally use it out of a roll.

Someone was looking at it and had to pull the whole stack of sheets of the clear bag that has the "print side" label on.

I would normally do the wet your index and thumb test,and slide on the paper, the side that sticks is the side coated to print, but in this case I feel no difference.

I would hate to print on the wrong side wasting paper, ink and time.

Is this a double sided paper?
Any other simple test to find right side from wrong side?

Hugo

[framah]

I would take 2 sheets and flip one over and compare the surfaces. If they both look the same then i would think they are printable on both sides. If one side is brighter than the other then you have your answer.

[bill t.]

Do you mean to tell me, you don't have a cheap, LED, ultra-violet flashlight?  Good for finding OBA paper surfaces and scorpions.  Lowes has them.

[MHMG]

Do you mean to tell me, you don't have a cheap, LED, ultra-violet flashlight?  Good for finding OBA paper surfaces and scorpions.  Lowes has them.

The OBA is located in the paper core on Hot Press Bright, not in the coatings, so it's going to glow more or less evenly from both sides when you shine a blacklight on each surface. Hot Press and Cold press papers in cut sheet boxes are indeed difficult to determine the "printable" side finish because almost but not quite the same coating has been applied to both sides of the paper for anti-curl purposes. The "licked finger" sticky test thus is not a good indicator. Also, since both sides do have nearly the same coating thickness, both sides will print pretty well, but the optimum printable side apparently has a slightly thicker coating.  So, if you think the paper stack in the box has been put back in such a way that the "print this side" label is now questionable, then it does get really tricky to figure which side is which.

If I lay a piece of cut sheet (not from roll but from a packaged cut sheet box) on a flat surface, I do observe a little more tendency for a bit of forward curl which is an indicator of the thicker front side coating (it's hygroscopic properties exhibit moisture hysteresis effects that cause the curl, and hence the back side gets coated to counterbalance). Yet this tendency to curl can also be a subtle effect as well when the box is brand new.  

Perhaps the only definitive way to redetermine the front side surface is to take one sheet or a portion thereof from the package, note how you picked it up from the remaining stack, and print a color target on both sides, then compare. The optimum side will likely take somewhat better ink loading and exhibit a bit more color saturation and Dmax properties.

Good luck, and
cheers,
Mark
http://www.aardenburg-imaging.com

[huguito]

Thanks guys, but to make it more interesting, the retard that decided to remove the sheets off the bag, also spread them.

So really no way to know if they are all facing in the same direction.

I will print one sheet on both sides, if they look the same I will call it a day.

[deanwork]

How is the Epson Hot Press Bright longevity comparing to Hahnemuhle and Canson matt rag papers?

[Jeff Magidson]

As Mark said - Epson Hot Press Bright sheets (and Epson Cold Press) are almost identical on both sides in terms of coating. It is very hard to tell the difference. I often use the back side of bad prints as test paper. This is an added economical benefit of using these papers! Roll stock is a different matter, it is only coated on one side.

[Alan Goldhammer]

How is the Epson Hot Press Bright longevity comparing to Hahnemuhle and Canson matt rag papers?

Aardenburg has data on Hahnemuhle Photo Rag Ultra Smooth (I supplied the prints to Mark for testing) and EHPB.  Seems to be pretty equivalent when looking at the 100 megalux data.  You can go to the site and see for yourself.

[Conner999]

The two sides are very close, so much so, and as mentioned by someone else, I'll also use backsides as test sheets.  The designated printable side is a tad brighter in right light and sometimes the damp finger test works.

[John V.]

I've been printing on this paper recently. If you let light hit it just right, you can see that the backside is slightly more textured. The printable side is smoother.

[huguito]

Thank John

That's the clue I can use, shining a light in a very slanted direction to the plane of the sheet I can see a difference in texture,but I wasn't sure if the "right" side was the rougher or the smoother.
If the amount of ink receiving coating applied to both sides of the paper is similar,wich could be the reason why the wet finger test doesn't work in this case,  maybe I just find out that paper is really TWO different papers.

Sort of like "Hot Press" and "Warm Press"

I will print the same image, with the same settings, in both sides and see how different they look. We could be on to something.

Hugo

 

[huguito]

I made a print in each side of a sheet, then cut the sheet to compare them.
One side shows a bit more of a texture on the paper, I suspect that's the front printable side.
The image looks in color, lightness, contrast and mood. Just exactly the same.
Even to the touch is identical.

Conclusions;

1) The paper prints the same in both sides, if you want some texture print in the front, if you want it more smooth like the Epson enhanced matte print in the back. This paper is double sided.

2) The incredible quality in the output of my old Epson 9600 printer, and my superior craftmanship, combined. Allows me to print even on toilet paper achieving outstanding results.

Test finished, case closed.

[John V.]

My HPB packaging came with a nice big sticker that says "Printable Side Up," so this sounds kinda odd to me, but I do have a double-sided print job coming up and this would work well. I'll have to try it out myself.

[rogan]

A certain famous Epson employee turned me on to this......I've used it for portfolios.
The side labeled front will take a little more ink so I try to use it for the darker image but both sides are amazing and by far the nicest printing Dbl sided matte paper out there. Also the most expensive:)

[John Caldwell]

I agree with huguito. Both sides print very nicely, take ink enormously well, but the front and back surfaces are different. I've used Epson Hot Press and Cold Press in the past for fine art greeting cards, employing two-sided printing. I used the correct side for the card exterior, which contained photographic art in my case, and the inside for text and shapes. But both sides took the ink similarly well. Cold Press differs from Hot Press in the surface textures, as you probably know. Each is available in Natural and Bright which, as you'd guess, relates to use of brightening agents.

If your printing application were a book, or some situation in which you wanted each doubled-sided printed surface to look truly identical, I'd probably not use this paper.

While I generally dislike Epson papers and almost never use them on our 9900 and 4900 machines, I do consider the Cold Press and Hot Press papers about as good as any MK paper I know of.

John Caldwell