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September 21, 2005
[ ANOTHER MILESTONE… ]
AN IMPORTANT MILESTONE in the transition from silver based photography to digital imaging was passed in June. Kodak announced that they were stopping production of conventional black and white photographic paper. The factory in Brazil was closed and the company drew a little closer to its downsize target of 15,000 sackings world-wide.
For those who have spent years puddling around in the darkroom, up to their elbows in toxic chemicals, it was almost unbelievable that the company that had democratised photography over one hundred years ago should be withdrawing from the basic chemistry and technology on which it was based.
At more or less the same time that it announced an end to silver-based monochrome paper Kodak launched a new line of inkjet papers, called Kodak Professional Inkjet Photo Paper. Initially the paper comes in two surfaces, Gloss and Lustre. Lustre is a dimpled semi-matte paper.
Kodak’s domestic inkjet papers have not worked well with all printers, being more or less incompatible with Canon’s best photo quality machines. dpexpert uses a Canon i9950 eight colour wide format printer which does not take kindly to the Kodak papers, so we approached the new Professional papers with caution.
We need not have worried. The new paper is a different medium altogether from the domestic paper in the yellow packets. Because of the coincidence of the two announcements we decided to jump right in and try the black and white capabilities of the new paper. Results on the Lustre paper are superb with rich, deep blacks and glowing greys and clean highlights.
Before trying a colour print we were advised to follow Kodak’s instructions for the new paper to the letter. And we found that any deviation from even one of the parameters resulted in grossly erroneous colours.
Kodak provide printer profiles for all of the best-known photo printers at their web site. It is essential to download and install the specified profile for the printer being used. Instructions for assigning colour profiles and printer settings are found by clicking on “Support Main” in the links on the web site.
It is assumed that Photoshop is being used to prepare photos for printing. A Kodak-specific ICC profile must be assigned to the open image and the various parameters in “Print with preview” must be correctly set.
Following the instructions exactly produced excellent results. The Lustre surface is particularly attractive. The Glossy doesn’t have the high sheen of Canon and Epson papers but it produces fine detail and accurate colour. Kodak says that the fibre base of these inkjet papers is the same as used for their silver gelatine papers.
The Kodak Professional Inkjet Photo Paper is highly recommended for anyone prepared to take the trouble to use it correctly. Well worth laying out for a packet to give it a try.
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Posted by terry at September 21, 2005 07:18 PM
