articles/Paper/canson-infinity-the-range-page4
by Mike McNamee Published 10/04/2015
Even for fanatics like us the testing required a lot of printing, thousand upon thousand of measurements indeed, thank goodness for automated systems!
Monochrome
All surfaces are good for monochrome using the ABW driver and produced a higher Dmax compared with the colour profile audits. All were optimum using the DARK tone setting other than the Baryta Photographique which was a bit light (3.6% light on the 50% patch) and might benefit from the use of a DARKER tone setting. We say 'might' because the user might actually prefer a lighter print, it depends more on taste than statistics!
The Platine Photographique is a close relative of the papers which Canson traditionally supplied for use in platinum print making of which Irving Penn is perhaps the most highly valued (one of his limited edition platinum prints sold for almost $250,000 a couple of years back. This media has the look and feel of the original F-type Baryta papers. The resulting monochromes are almost exactly neutral which in fact imparts a slightly creamy tone in most light; the parameters are 51.51, -1.0, -0.8 in Lab units. The small addition of OBAs to the Baryta Photographique cools the base tone very slightly and brings the overall print tone down to something that looks neutral to the eye. By comparison the RC papers are all a lot cooler and brighter to look at.
Papers Requiring Matt Black Ink
These are very much the art selection of the range although the smoother variants are well suited to photographic uses. They are all 100% cotton rag so that removes that from the decision equation. This is true also for OBAs, none in any of them. The remaining three headline parameters are the method of manufacture (mould made or, presumably, Fourdrinier), weight and texture. As the name might suggest the Rag Photogrpahique is a smooth finish which holds good detail and is highly suited to 'photographic ' subjects. The others have varying degrees of texture to suit all tastes.
The profiles were made with media settings of UltraSmooth Fine Art Paper (USFAP) for Rag Photographique and Textured Fine Art paper (TFAP) for the others. You might consider trying alternative media settings if you profile build and certainly you need to test if you use a generic profile from Canson - in our experience, for example, the difference between using Velvet Fine Art Paper and Watercolour Radiant White can be dramatic. The paper base-tones are clustered around 1-2 points up the Lab b scale, that is slightly creamy. This is the natural colour of rag-fibred papers - nothing is added and nothing is taken away!
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