RC prints spot just as easily using the ordinary Spot Tone or Marshall's dyes. No big deal there.
RC prints spot just as easily using the ordinary Spot Tone or Marshall's dyes. No big deal there.
I don't sell my prints, but I much prefer the aesthetic look of air-dried glossy fiber paper over any RC surface.
xkaes - you've had orangepeel, probably routinely. Just put an angular light to it. I only need to ask one question to prove it - what's the specific substrate are you drymounting it on?
I've never sold a fiber-based print, but then I've never tried to sell a fiber-based print. I've had much better luck selling color prints -- which were all resin coated -- over B&W. I've never had anyone ask me if my prints were fiber-based. And I've never had any complaints.
I see it as silver coated in plastic vs. silver layered on clay and cotton.
OK. That's starting to make sense. The general thread was about b&w RC. There are now no routine fiber-based color print options, though a limited amount of dye transfer printing is still going on, as well as hand-coated color prints on paper like carbon transfer. It has nothing to do with "complaints" you might get; that's all relative to the specific clientele. Mine would scream. Matte or satin RC color prints are going to betray orangepeel considerably less than glossy RC, even though it's there in those cases too. It just doesn't show much. Once you go true gloss, like with Fujiflex or former Cibachrome, any variation from total flatness is highly evident. With nearly truly flat substrates like Dibond or Ultraboard, or Gatorplast, heat mounting is not realistic at all. Everything other kind of mounting board has an irregular surface; and the heat of drymounting conforms RC papers to the uneven surface. That's been known in the picture framing trade for decades; and Seal made a point of warning about it themselves. But I'm glad it's working out for you. Always nice if you can use equipment already on hand. I can't imagine life without my big 500 Seal press, though I never use it for color prints.
In the end, the difference in the cost of the paper should have little impact on a sale, unless you are selling a lot of really large prints dirt cheap. So go for the extra bucks and work and use fiber.
Not that I'm looking to buy any, but does anyone sell fiber-based mural paper (40-54" wide) nowadays?
I'm not looking for any because a while back, a camera shop in another State was closing, and I was able to buy all their rolls of B&W and Color (mostly Color) mural paper for the cost of shipping. They are all thick glossy RC paper, and I could not pass it up -- even if they do "orangepeel".
It's the big color paper rolls hard to get now. That issue is specifically addressed under RA4 darkroom threads. Kodak suspended making it, planning to restart with a Chinese subcontractor, at what turned out to be the worse possible time with the pandemic and now a war affecting energy and petrochemical prices. That created panic buying of Fuji papers. Can't get even Fuji Super C rolls at the moment. Have had a big Fujiflex roll on backorder for six months now. Whenever ....
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