My preference is to use polymer coated paper for dye based printing on my Canon IP4000. I choose this paper for two reasons:
Advantages:
Longevity:
The polymer coatings seal out atmospheric contaminants such as ozone, greatly reducing the fade rate of the dyes.
Contrast:
I have found that nanoporous papers leave a mild hazy blue cast on dark colors especially blacks. The result is that the images end up looking a bit flat.
Unfortunately, I am not satisfied with polymer's tendency to bleed at high saturation. This is most apparent when sharp highly saturated shapes are printed. For instance, a solid black line will look ragged when you look at it close up. I also find that the images tend to look just a bit more grainy. Now I thought I would investigate this a bit further by taking some close up images of the print on both types of coatings. The image below is a 150x magnification. It was printed on a Canon IP4000 using the Photo paper pro setting at it's finest level (1). Image is contrast enhanced.
If you look closely, you will notice that many of the ink dots on the polymer paper (lower image) have coalesced (especially apparent on magenta). This would explain the increased grainy look. I believe that the problem lies in the relatively slow drying rate, so the drops tend to spread out, and if two drops touch before they are dry, the natural charge on the surface causes them to join. The slow drying rate is also likely responsible for the bleeding of areas of heavy ink lay.
I found one way to improve on this, but it is awkward. Here is what I did:
I placed an 8 x 11 sheet of polymer coated paper into a deep casserole pan, then laid a dampened towel over the top of the pan ensuring it does not contact the sheet. I left this for 1 hour, removed it, and printed an image. The result was a great reduction in bleeding. Now, I suspect that the moisture adsorbed into the coating made it less hydrophobic. Perhaps it is somewhat like trying to wet a completely dry sponge -at first the water rolls off, but if the sponge is dampened, it absorbs water much more efficiently. If this paper was left to sit in the open room for too long, newly printed images would once again show bleeding. I found this to occur after about 7 minutes. The room was at room temperature and the RH was a dry 29%. This is an awkward process I admit, but I may use it occasionally in critical photo printing. Just though I would pass this along.
The only other potential solution I can see is to slow the printer down although there does not seem to be a setting for this. I did set it to quiet mode but this made little difference. Is there a way to do this?
On another note:
Below is a link to an interesting product -a nanoporous archival inkjet paper. Looks like it uses some type of recyclable antioxidant. Has anyone used this paper? -called PermaPix in the USA. From the small amount of shared technical information from their site, I see that it is not quite as effective as a polymer coated paper. My main concerns are image contrast, and longevity of recycling cycle.
http://www.ferrania-store.com/servlet/the-617/PermaPix-Advanced-Archival-Photo/Detail
http://www.ferraniait.com/solutions/inkjet/cutsheet_set1.htm
(technical sheet)
Comments?
Advantages:
Longevity:
The polymer coatings seal out atmospheric contaminants such as ozone, greatly reducing the fade rate of the dyes.
Contrast:
I have found that nanoporous papers leave a mild hazy blue cast on dark colors especially blacks. The result is that the images end up looking a bit flat.
Unfortunately, I am not satisfied with polymer's tendency to bleed at high saturation. This is most apparent when sharp highly saturated shapes are printed. For instance, a solid black line will look ragged when you look at it close up. I also find that the images tend to look just a bit more grainy. Now I thought I would investigate this a bit further by taking some close up images of the print on both types of coatings. The image below is a 150x magnification. It was printed on a Canon IP4000 using the Photo paper pro setting at it's finest level (1). Image is contrast enhanced.
If you look closely, you will notice that many of the ink dots on the polymer paper (lower image) have coalesced (especially apparent on magenta). This would explain the increased grainy look. I believe that the problem lies in the relatively slow drying rate, so the drops tend to spread out, and if two drops touch before they are dry, the natural charge on the surface causes them to join. The slow drying rate is also likely responsible for the bleeding of areas of heavy ink lay.
I found one way to improve on this, but it is awkward. Here is what I did:
I placed an 8 x 11 sheet of polymer coated paper into a deep casserole pan, then laid a dampened towel over the top of the pan ensuring it does not contact the sheet. I left this for 1 hour, removed it, and printed an image. The result was a great reduction in bleeding. Now, I suspect that the moisture adsorbed into the coating made it less hydrophobic. Perhaps it is somewhat like trying to wet a completely dry sponge -at first the water rolls off, but if the sponge is dampened, it absorbs water much more efficiently. If this paper was left to sit in the open room for too long, newly printed images would once again show bleeding. I found this to occur after about 7 minutes. The room was at room temperature and the RH was a dry 29%. This is an awkward process I admit, but I may use it occasionally in critical photo printing. Just though I would pass this along.
The only other potential solution I can see is to slow the printer down although there does not seem to be a setting for this. I did set it to quiet mode but this made little difference. Is there a way to do this?
On another note:
Below is a link to an interesting product -a nanoporous archival inkjet paper. Looks like it uses some type of recyclable antioxidant. Has anyone used this paper? -called PermaPix in the USA. From the small amount of shared technical information from their site, I see that it is not quite as effective as a polymer coated paper. My main concerns are image contrast, and longevity of recycling cycle.
http://www.ferrania-store.com/servlet/the-617/PermaPix-Advanced-Archival-Photo/Detail
http://www.ferraniait.com/solutions/inkjet/cutsheet_set1.htm
(technical sheet)
Comments?
