What digital printing process comes closest to Fine Art Silver Gelatin paper?

[britt_park]

<p>I've gotten some color prints on Fuji Crystal Archive paper either from a Frontier or LightJet and I was favorable impressed. FCA paper seems much more like a Fiber Based print than other color materials though it's paper weight is much lighte than Fine-Art paper. What system gives images closest in character to Fiber Based prints? I'm trying to set up for selling images for reasonable prices on line and want a process that is archival and as close to fine prints from my darkroom from digital sources. I shoot film exclusively and scan, or print in the darkroom. In truth, I prefer the exquisite control I get from digital manipulation.</p>

 

<p>In case anyone is interested my gallery can be found

<a href="http://www.sciencething.org/photos/photos.html">here</a>. There are only a few images their now as I've just started going through my thousands of negatives.

 

Thanks for any opinion about printing systems or about my pictures.

[david_f._stein]

Epson Professional Glossy is the closest I've seen to air-dried glossy

fiber base paper but I do not know its longevity. For more details,

visit www.inkjetart.com. You could use it with the Epson 2200 or any

number of printers with archival pigment ink from Media Street or MIS

Associates. In truth, we can't say how long each combination might

last, only extrapolate from accelerated aging testing. GOOD

LUCK.........

[markci]

I know there are some labs who print on b&w RC paper using the Lightjet. Don't know about fiber, though.

[scott_eaton]

Piezo and quad tone Inkjet will give you better results closer to Silver Gelatin than color RA-4 papers. In greyscale mode there isn't a whole lot of difference between Fuji CA and any of Kodaks color papers. Kodak's will actually work better in this sense since they have more density range (deeper blacks) than Fuji's.

[john_luke]

The most stable process is what you have mentioned, Crystal Archive paper on a light jet printer. Reed Photo (reedphoto.com) in Denver uses Ilford Gallerie BW in their light jet printer for BW prints.

 

If you want the feel of a water color stock, a pigment ink from either MIS or Media Street (inksuppply.com, mediastreet.com) on an acid free stock such as Hahnemuhle paper (digitalartsupplies.com) is the best inkjet technology can deliver. Avoid glossy inkjet stocks. They are the least stable.

 

Some people are even making large digital negs for contact printing using the platinum palladium process.

[roger krueger]

The frustrating thing is that I know of no real reason you can't feed fiber into a Lightjet except that no one currently offers it on the 50 inch rolls the Lightjet requires. Could it really be rocket science to make a Lightjet sheet feed? Is it an absolute economic impossibility to produce 50 inch roll fiber?

[britt_park]

Roger,

Actually I think there are some sound engineering reasons why FB paper can't run through a lightjet (besides the unavailability of roll paper). A roller transport machine is just too rough on material. Color paper and RC B&W paper are fundamentally tough and thin. Fiber based printing paper is probably 3x as thick as RC papers and may just not fit into a Frontier. Of course there's no reason that some charitable company couldn't build a LightJet specifically for FB papers. I think the economics are against us, unfortunately.

[rcoda]

I heard something about the gelatin coating or something about clay, that precluded this from happening. I know the market is small, BUT... they could get just about every fine-art black & white photographer out there if it was available.

 

Rich

www.rcodaphotography.com

[john_harris11]

Regarding the issues with LightJet and fibre papers:

The lightjet will handle roll material shorter than 50", we have successfully run material as narrow as 20", but now stock nothing smaller than 30". Unfortunately due to the design of the device(paper is fed into the interior of either a 50" circumference or 120" cir. drum (depending on lightjet model) under tension. This keeps the material flat and stationary in a perpendicular path to the lasers. This path is why the LightJets have such excellent sharpness edge to edge with no banding or interlacing issues. Lesser competitive products run with the paper flat and moving across the imaging head (lasers or led) any slop in the transport of the paper results in unwanted artifacts on the final print.

 

Due to the lateral tension used to hold the paper in place, it must be not only flexible, but resistant to sagging and unwanted flexing. The right paper base could be formulated for fiber, but very little money is being invested in digital BW by the manufacturers. Kodak discontinued their BW digital papers early 2004. So unless digital silver gelatin is embraced enough to expand the market, it is unlikely that digital fiber will ever see the light of day in a machine with the quality of the lightjet. So until then, we as a fine-art lab are forced to offer only RC silver gelatin digital prints.

 

There are "digital enlargers" entering the market, but I have not seen the print quality from these devices and cannot testify to their sharpness. Because they use traditional optics, all the pitfalls of optical printing such as flairing, abberations, etc will still be in place. And remember; the greater the percentage of enlargment, the greater the abberations effect your print.

 

Feel free to email me with any questions.