What fibre-base paper has the highest black density?

[Greg Y]

Bob, I haven't used enough of it to say. I have a good size stock of Ilford Warmtone & FomaTone Variant, and only pull out the graded papers for certain negatives. But the few boxes of Grade 3 Slavich produced good results. Besides the Guilleminot & Boespflug Brilliant I sure liked Fortezo graded.

[Drew Wiley]

This thread is downright painful. I soooo much wanna get back to the darkroom and start printing again. But I've gotta keep plugging along on some outdoor projects before the rains start again.

[Jim Michael]

Thanks for the education on Seagull Drew. I remember it being pretty good back in the late 70s, and saw they had brought it back in some form.

It ain't. The rumor is that the older Seagull G couldn't be exactly replicated because cadmium became a no-no. But whatever the reason, the redux Seagull G didn't have quite the same punch, and the Grade 4 version was a bellyflop. The general image color and toning characteristics were similar. But now all the graded Seagull is long gone. VC Seagull has been kept alive; but some dealers dropped it because the quality control got flaky. But it was never in the same leagueas the graded anyway. Them was the days. Seagull G, Brilliant Bromide, Portriga, Kodak Elite, Galerie. Used em all, though Seagull was the most versatile. Now the only really punchy graded paper I can find is Ilfobrom Galerie, though I still have some EMaks on hand. It's a new era with superb VC papers to choose from instead. A couple months ago I stumbled upon an old dramatic Brillant print I hadn't toned or mounted yet, so I gave it a good soak in GP-1. That's gotta be the most DMax I ever gotten from a silver paper.