Your favorite paper thickness?

[The Hat]

Hehe I guess 4R is used more in photography than anywhere else. It's essentially 4x6 inches. Is there a metric or imperial equivalent? The stores list it this way as well. I found this guide online:

I suppose you’re not to blame for the website trying to confuse everyone with the ridiculous conversions, and your 4R is the size of our A6...

 

[Artur5]

From the bygone era of the wet darkroom I miss the Cibachrome paper but, ouch, it came a really premium price ..and the chemicals were way more expensive than OEM ink.

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

And there are glossy , semiglossy, silk, lustre, semimatt, pearl , matte surfaces you can choose from. And if you are looking for dark wetroom type papers you can go Baryta type ones.

 

[maximilian59]

Cibachrome: Then you really have to try the HP paper. The baryta papers give a impression for the black and white prints, but don't reach the look of papers from a dry press. Nothing is as glossy as that in my eyes, when I look at my more than 40 years old prints.

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

There are many great papers on the market from where you select those which you like most but you need to go off and do some testing for yourself. I recommend sample packs for testing which various paper manufacturers and dealers can offer you.
The HP premium plus paper is indeed very good. I like as well the Hahnemühle Photo Glossy Baryta 320g in the Baryta range, this paper has a white point of L*=98, whiter than all other papers I have tested before and which is directly visible in direct comparison with other papers, and it does not contain much - or no - optical brighteners, it is whiter under any light condition. But it's more the overall appearance - gloss - surface - haptic than just this white point.

 

[maximilian59]

This paper has OBAs as stetted in the data sheet. There are other papers with with this high L* too without OBAs. Have a look at the database of spectrumviz. The HP paper I mentioned is more or less OBA free. For albums it is much better suited than baryta paper, which have a very sensitive surface. I never heard that baryta papers have been used for the Cibachrome process because this is a very complicated color process with dyes already part of the paper. Unfortunately I have no Cibachrome print to compare.

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

OBA's - yes, and the M2 white point - w/o activation of the OBA's - lamplight - is still at L*=97.9 , and I have another Mediajet Baryta paper with less/no OBA's - directly visible with an UV lamp - which is as well at L*=97.5. It's not just one value when judging a paper - it's a combination of the gamut, the look, the evenness of the gloss, or the surface structure, the black point , the stiffnesss - haptic impression - and this all for a particular price I'm willing to pay for those characteristics - or not.
If you want to do a simple comparison of the gloss of papers - place the paper(s) to test on a table, use a laser pointer - green - red - point it onto the paper surface and watch the reflection at a white/even wall or the cealing, you'll see quite different diffusion patterns between papers - or just a dot of the pointer if you use a piece of glass in between; you can do this as well on printed areas, and you can see that and how the gloss, the fine structure of the coating is changing after the exposure to the solvent, the effect varies between papers.

 

[maximilian59]

I now compared all Canon glossy papers, the Epson RC glossy papers, all baryta papers of the Hahnemühle sample packs, the Photolux papers, Suhl Masterclass glossy papers, the Tecco baryta papers and some others with the HP paper and none of them comes that special look near. The question was for a paper, which is like the Cibachrome papers, and in my opinion the HP paper is the nearest. I would be glad to hear of another paper which has a comparable gloss and comes near to the old colored prints in the 60es and 70es. I can then try to make prints on Canon and Epson printers (dye and pigmented inks). But I think dye inks may be better. There I can directly print and compare the six ink Ikaria HD set with the eight ink Chromalife100+ set. Of course all with OEM inks. As I have a i1Pro2, it is possible for me to make own profiles with the same patch set from the same computer.
I am always open for a really good new paper on the glossy side.
As you write L* is one possible value. For me more on the lower end for decision which paper to take. That is the reason I didn't bring this in the discussion. How many people can see whether a paper has L* 97 or L* 98 without direct comparing them side by side? And how much is left, when the photo is printed?

 

[kian mury]

I am using 165gsm for small office work. 280 or 320gsm is so high and heavy. High gsm paper is very glossy, Which is better for photos or other design printing relevant work.