Great Paper Chase Permajet Ultra Pearl

This paper is brand new and arrived late in the magazine production schedule but we thought you might like to go and visit it at Focus! As we had just finished bedding in our new measuring protocols it was also given quite a close looking at!

It is a bright white media with a pearl finish. This makes it stand out somewhat in the market as the surface effect is strong and, if you like pearls and satins, attractive. It has the added advantage of increased toughness due to the application of an Image Protection Layer which confers considerable scuff and scratch resistance. It weighs in at 295gsm with a calliper of 290 microns. It was very flat and of moderate stiffness.

It is a cool paper with a Lab b value of -7.30. The OBA activity is high, rising to a reflectance of 106% at 430nm, about 12% above base reflectance. This makes for quite a bright, 'sparky' paper. The spectral curve is distinctive with a dip at 570nm although we are unsure how this affects the performance (see colour inconstancy index later).

Colour Audit

With such a bright paper we did not expect any fireworks in terms of colour accuracy in the audit test. The tones were accurately mapped by our bespoke profile to the base white, which improves only the precision of the blue tones. The greys started out mapped at the white point and gradually became warmed as the tones progressed towards the shadows.

The highlights were separated right up to 252 RGB points. The detection of shadow differentiation was influenced by the viewing angle and the pearl coating, but 20 RGB points retained detail. The gamut volume was a middle of the road 880,282 (compared with say 914,730 for Permajet Gloss on a 3880). The Dmax for an 'all colour' print was high at 2.15. The Colour Inconstancy Index (CII) was higher than is normal for an Epson K3 UltraChrome inset at 3.07 (it's rarely above 1.7) and this may be due to the coating which also delivered an unusual spectral power distribution (but we are not sure!).

Overall then the colour printing was where it should be for this class of paper with the bonus of some extra sparkle and toughness, along with a high Dmax.

Monochrome Testing

This type of surface finish can play well with the monochrome enthusiast and for that reason we spent a little more time on this aspect than we can usually afford. We ran a full tonal analysis on the Epson Advanced Black and White (ABW) drivers.

Our deliberations suggest that a setting somewhere between Lighter and Normal allows the 50% input luminance to give 50% output luminance. The other options rather over-darkened the image and by the time we got to 'Darkest' we were a full 10% darker than the aim value. Using the ABW driver made little difference to the CII but the Dmax was raised to an impressive 2.37 – very high for a 'lustre'. Such values excite the monochrome enthusiasts; they do add depth to a print!

ABOVE: The overall trend of the Lab plot shows the effect of the profile mapping to the
coolness of the base paper, all the colours are heading south, other than the blue! This
is a normal result for a cool, bright paper.

The base tone using ABW 'neutral' started at the base white (nominally at 2; -6) then climbed to a more neutral value as more of the truly neutral ink was set down. We made an identical print pair using 'ABW; neutral; light' and then a full-colour image using our bespoke profile. The ABW print was slightly lighter to the eye and slightly green in the mid-tones, a result confirmed by measurement. We attempted to refine the ABW shot using ABW normal (to make it darker) and settings of 10 Horizontal; 5 Vertical (to counteract the green bias). This delivered a pleasing, but very slightly warm-toned print suggesting that something like 7H; 3V would create a neutral effect. This is a personal judgement and shows off the sophistication of control available in the ABW – it allows a refined tweak of even the most brightened papers! We also noted that the prints were a rather ugly green cast under low-energy fluorescent bulbs (see the feature in this issue), this is not a comment on the paper or ink!

Overall

This is bright punchy paper and if you like the pearl effect you should at least give it a try. The toughness of the finish will be attractive for album-making and also for the enthusiasts whose prints can take a fair amount of wear and tear as they go about from exhibition to exhibition. A tougher surface is long overdue for inkjet paper. We understand that the laboratories are already using the product and have been able to dispense with lamination, thus saving costs and time.

ABOVE: Regardless of how many statistics we assemble on a given paper test we always try to make real prints, of real subjects, for real people! Here, a superb Jay in the recent snow,
from Jon Ashton, pops out of the test-bed Epson 3800. See the feature on exposure.