Paper Chase - Impart True Cotton Matt Canvas

Paper Mill Direct recently introduced a true canvas to their media line-up, along with a Giclée Varnish. Under their Impart banner, True Cotton Canvas is a 340gsm, 50 micron, cotton Oxford twill with a slightly cream, matte coating. It does not appear to have any optical brighteners added to its coating and is available in a wide range of widths including 330, 432, 610, 915, and 1067mm. We tested it on an Epson 7600 using the Photo Black ink set.

ON TEST

As with all canvases the tone depth is lower than a paper surface but the canvas achieved a creditable Paper diagram Dmax of 1.27 (27.6% on the Lab lightness scale). A bespoke profile was made to create the normal Paper Chase audit target and this was tested before and after two coats of the DCP giclée gloss varnish. In common with previous findings, the Dmax was substantially improved by the gloss varnish pushing it out to 1.50 with a loss of just 1.7% of brightness in the highlights. The tone was warmed by the varnish, bringing the whites about 3 Lab points more creamy. The flesh tones followed this trend, with the effect being more pronounced on the paler, less saturated skin tones. Overall the colour errors were highest in the lightness channel and much improved by the application of varnish. The varnish has an important secondary effect of toughening the surface, sealing it against airborne contamination and protecting it against moisture. Regular contributor Andrew Williams reports a spectacular test in which a spillage of paint onto a newly prepared, varnished canvas was mopped up with turpentine with no ill effects – what were you doing with paint out in the vicinity of a giclée Andrew?

VARNISH UPDATE

As part of this review we experimented with other ways of applying varnish. The Harris roller applicators paper 2 are made from high-density foam. Whilst the varnish still froths up when using this roller, if you apply a thin coating you can then use something like the Harris White Diamond brush (or the Purdy) to gently brush out the bubbles that are left behind. For the landscape shown below we coated with a thin coat of Matte DCP Giclée Varnish to protect the surface during framing and stretching and then gave it a coat of rollered gloss followed by brushing out. It worked well and as a bonus the roller was easily cleaned for further use (although they only cost a couple of pounds in any case).

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LEFT: The gamut volume of the uncoated media was measured at 460,000Lab3 points, reasonably typical for a canvas material.

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Fine Art Canvas & Canvas Buckram

We have a confession to make! We took a single sheet of this material away from Focus (and before its launch) and incorrectly reported it in Paper Chase 8. The name said it was canvas and without checking we assumed it was a real canvas (ie off a loom). In actual fact it is a pulp product, into which Croppers have moulded a highly realistic impression of canvas. The surface is available in 1.3mm board (the one we originally tested) and now also as a 315gsm, 47 micron, paper media called Canvas Fine Art. Both surfaces appear to have identical coatings and behave in a very similar fashion when ink and varnish are applied. The Canvas Fine Art is quite a stiff and flat media which is very nice to handle and runs through the printer very easily. The tone is quite creamy and the surface texture is shown in the macro image. The media does not achieve a high Dmax and all the other tones are slightly lighter – the major component of the error is in the lightness channel. The Dmax was 1.27 before coating and around

1.5 after two coats of DCP Giclée Gloss Varnish. The skin tones are all biased towards the cream of the base, with the higher errors in the lightness value.

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Buckram A book cloth made from cotton or linen, usually the former, and closely woven, occasionally with a double warp. It is filled or coated and calendered to give it a smooth finish which blocks well and is reasonably durable. Originally, the term applied only to a starchfilled fabric; today, however, it applies also to coated and impregnated fabrics having a heavy base.

CONCLUSIONS

All three media are a valuable addition to the market. The True Canvas retails at £107.97 for 12m at 24”, making it one of the most competitively priced canvasses about.