HarryL wrote:
I have use both, they're truly fine papers(little overpriced)  The one that still the show is Canson PLATINE FIBRE RAG, Textures & light tones are brilliant throughout the page!

H

I'll check that out too! Thanks for the suggestion.

Erick R.

Erick Rodriguez wrote:
IWhat are the differences between the two? Are there any other suggestions out there? Thanks!

That's a lot of confidence that the ink/paper combination will give decent results. I've never determined which paper to use first, unless I've tested or known what the results look like with the ink to be used with the paper first.

You should be asking the printer, not us. I usually pick a range of papers, test them with the ink, profiles and the printer first to decide what gets the results I want.

Leonard Gee Photography wrote:

That's a lot of confidence that the ink/paper combination will give decent results. I've never determined which paper to use first, unless I've tested or known what the results look like with the ink to be used with the paper first.

You should be asking the printer, not us. I usually pick a range of papers, test them with the ink, profiles and the printer first to decide what gets the results I want.

+1

Erick Rodriguez wrote:
Hello MM,

I am putting together a screw post print portfolio. After doing some homework on the topic of photo papers I have found a large variety out there. I am primarily going for an 11" x 14" paper size with either Hahnemuhle Photo Silk Baryta or Ilford Galerie Prestige Gold Fibre Silk Paper. I am going to use a mat cutter to trim the paper to the desired size so 13" x 19" will probably be what I get.

I plan on getting them printed at a print shop so if you have suggestions for that it would help!

What are the differences between the two? Are there any other suggestions out there? Thanks!

Erick R.

The Ilford papers might be hard to find since they folded up shop a few months back in bankruptcy.

As to sending them out to a printer, it will likely depend on what he uses and not what you want.  He will have profiles made or using the companies profile to print with and some of that tuning takes time and they might not do it.  They may have their generic luster, glossy, canvas, and maybe some fine art paper they use all the time over what you would like.

I was asked about that and to buy a roll of specialty paper, spend the time to come up with a profile, and then run the prints is a lot of expense and work.  Some outfits will charge $100 just to generate a single profile for use with their printer and ink setup.  Gets costly.

If all you are printing is 13x19, there are cheap printers that will do the job and if you spend the time, you should be able to surpass a print shop's quality.  Might be a bit of learning and maybe some hardware involved, but some like to do it.  Adorama had a Canon Pro-100 13x19 inch printer on some sale with a box of 50 sheets of paper for only $34 not long ago (Here: http://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/53927528 ).  I have one old Canon 9000 II I picked off Craigslist for $200 from a dentist who didn't want it as part of a Canon DSLR deal and I learned to refill it with OCP ink for 35 cents per ink cart verses the OEM $17 per cart price.

Also, some of the fine art papers are a bit flaky on the backside and leave bits of residue if you bind them into a book.  You will be forever wiping the stuff off each page.  A RC base or Duo-surface (i.e. print on both sides) paper might be a better choice than a cotton or fiber rag.  I know because I did it and also some papers need a vacuum cleaner taken to the book and printer both for all the residual stuff they continually shed.  That or spray both sides of the paper once printed.

GRMACK wrote:

The Ilford papers might be hard to find since they folded up shop a few months back in bankruptcy.

As to sending them out to a printer, it will likely depend on what he uses and not what you want.  He will have profiles made or using the companies profile to print with and some of that tuning takes time and they might not do it.  They may have their generic luster, glossy, canvas, and maybe some fine art paper they use all the time over what you would like.

I was asked about that and to buy a roll of specialty paper, spend the time to come up with a profile, and then run the prints is a lot of expense and work.  Some outfits will charge $100 just to generate a single profile for use with their printer and ink setup.  Gets costly.

If all you are printing is 13x19, there are cheap printers that will do the job and if you spend the time, you should be able to surpass a print shop's quality.  Might be a bit of learning and maybe some hardware involved, but some like to do it.  Adorama had a Canon Pro-100 13x19 inch printer on some sale with a box of 50 sheets of paper for only $34 not long ago (Here: http://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/53927528 ).  I have one old Canon 9000 II I picked off Craigslist for $200 from a dentist who didn't want it as part of a Canon DSLR deal and I learned to refill it with OCP ink for 35 cents per ink cart verses the OEM $17 per cart price.

Also, some of the fine art papers are a bit flaky on the backside and leave bits of residue if you bind them into a book.  You will be forever wiping the stuff off each page.  A RC base or Duo-surface (i.e. print on both sides) paper might be a better choice than a cotton or fiber rag.  I know because I did it and also some papers need a vacuum cleaner taken to the book and printer both for all the residual stuff they continually shed.  That or spray both sides of the paper once printed.

Thank you for your feedback I think you're onto something good. Print shop prices for fine art prints are up there considering a per print scenario. I did find some of those Canon Pro 100 printers on ebay for sale but without the ink cartridges. Adorama isn't running that special anymore. I like the idea of getting my own printer and setting up custom ICC profiles to get the most color gamut out of the printer. It would be much more cost efficient.

What is this OCP ink cartridge refill that you speak of?

Erick Rodriguez wrote:
....
What is this OCP ink cartridge refill that you speak of?

This place is where I get my Canon OCP ink out of:  http://www.rjettek.com/  For about $3-$5 per bottle of ink in bulk, it lasts a long time with the CLI-8 Canon carts I use in the 9000 Mark II printer that take maybe 10ml per refill (35 cents).  You just need the special resetter tool for whatever carts you end up with to reset them so they'll read full by the printer.  You can use your OEM carts and just drill out the filler ball in the top, squirt in the ink, and seal it with their plug or a hot glue gun and use them again.  I believe OCP is a German ink.

Then you can go to local Costco and get their glossy paper for test prints for about 10 cents per 8x11.5 inches (~$15 for 150 sheets).  Not that expensive for testing and playing with before committing to an expensive paper and final print.

When you get into the exotic papers, then the costs go up.  Also, Epson inks (pigments in general) tend to cost more than Canon - a lot!  Jon Cone (Inkjetmall.com) has that stuff along with the K7 Piezography B&W inks which you are looking at about $450 for 9 carts along with the refillable carts for ~$130 so not cheap, but they are pretty archival if you want B&W.  They do tend to look like the old chemical darkroom prints, but maybe sharper and more tonal range as well.  Takes a while to get tuned in with that system though, and it only works with Epson so far (and QuadTool Print Driver shareware for Mac or Windows, $50) or some special Ergosoft Studioprint 14 RIP print driver software which is $1500+ for the software.