Crane Museo Silver Rag -- user report

[tim atherton]

Michael - I've run it with the EpsonABW and QTR and got very nice results from both, though each with a slightly different look (and the QTR not quite as sharp). I have'nt actually tried JB's printing via the RGB colour driver

(K3 2400)

[Carl Schofield]

John,

You can get better softproofing capability with the Epson ABW mode if you make an icc profile to use for both print space (instead of NCM) and for softproofing in Photoshop. Roy Harrington's "Create-icc" script (part of the QTR download package) makes it very easy to make the icc profile. Simply select the settings you want ot use in ABW mode, print a grayscale step wedge, scan the strip with a spectrophotometer, and drop the spectro output file onto the Create-icc script droplet to generate the icc. Significant improvement in the linearity of the ABW output and perfect softproofing (both gray and color hues).

[Michael Mutmansky]

Tim,

Thanks for the info. I'm not a fan of OBA at all, so that'll probably make my preference swing to the Crane paper right off the bat. As most of my personal work is platinum or combination gum bichromate and platinum, I am used to to warmth and matte surface of the papers I use for those prints. I don't want to duplicate the prints on inkjet, but I do have a strong preference for a creamy base as opposed to the somewhat stark base of most papers with OBA's. I really liked the Agfa paper base color in their fiber based paper, for example.

I had heard of problems with the K2 inks, but I was hoping that had been dealt with as part of the refinement stages before the actual product were released to market. It sounds like that may not be so. I've a friend with a 4000, and have used his machine for printing, but if I want to use that paper, it soundsl like I'll have to think about investing in a 4800 or so.

---Michael

[John Brownlow]

I really like the base color. It is slightly warmer and slightly less white than HPR but the blacks are so much deeper that it seems whiter when you view the print.

[John Brownlow]

A few loose ends:

QTR: I haven't installed it for the 7800 because the Epson driver does such a great job at BW. Like I say I convert the BW images to RGB and then add a toning Curves layer. This produces an *extremely* accurate screen proof.

Feeding problems: I never really had them with Photo Rag except on the 1160. If anything CMSR is slightly thicker and definitely somewhat stiffer so I would imagine it would have the same issues. It is definitely somewhat 'sproingy' which can make handling a loose roll of it fun, but that's also why it doesn't curl so much.

Banding/Head Strikes:
I managed to eliminate these completely by fiddling with the Paper Configuration settings as follows:

Paper Feed Adjustment: -20 (default is 0)

Paper Thickness: 5 (default is 2)

Platen Gap: Wide (default is 'Standard')

Some people have used a longer drying time too but I didn't find that was necessary.

[neil poulsen]

It sounds like this is a good paper in its own right.

But it's interesting. When photography first emerged as an alternative to paintings, the goal was to make photographs look like paintings. Now, the goal is to make inkjets look like photographs.

History repeats itself.

[John Brownlow]

[update - color printing]

Well, I can now tell you about the color prints too. Most of the reviews say something like 'the color prints are very good but the BW is what it's all about'. However I am almost more impressed by the color prints than I am by the BW. They are *astoundingly* better than my previous HPR prints. The HPR prints aren't even in the same ballpark. Wow.

The look is very similar to dye-transfer, if that means anything. Awesome saturation, deep deep blacks and terrific sharpness.

It's really hard to find a reason why, apart from cost, I would use any other paper at this point.

One note about the Crane profile: it seems to crush the blacks a bit... possibly deliberate I guess. The shadows are not as open as they are with Piezo. I can see a custom profile being useful in some circumstances, or you can do the same thing with curves as the soft proof is very good. Nevertheless it is a very good profile, really really clean neutral colors.

The image I've been testing with is this one:

flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=61409006&size=l

[Eric Leppanen]

FYI: West Coast Imaging is now offering Silver Rag for both color and B&W prints. They also make the observation that color prints made with this paper are reminiscent of dye transfer.

www.westcoastimaging.com/wci/page/info/events.html

[Roger Hein]

":FWIW - unless it happens to be a print/neg that would really sing as a platinum print, I find almost everything I've re-printed on the Crane Silver Rag makes most of my old inkjet prints (on photo rag, Epson Velvet, Crane Museo Max and goodness knows what else) look rather flat and dull - dead."

I'm finding a similar thing between inkjet matt prints and platinums. Platinums look 'dull' and 'soft' in sharpness compared to inkjet prints on matte papers like VFA, HPR, etc.

[tim atherton]

"I'm finding a similar thing between inkjet matt prints and platinums. Platinums look 'dull' and 'soft' in sharpness compared to inkjet prints on matte papers like VFA, HPR, etc."

hmm - I don't even want to go there + it doens't do Jorge's blood pressure any good... ;-)