An interesting history of photographic printing

[DanK]

Not sure if it is behind their paywall, but Luminous Landscape has an interesting history of photographic printing up now, https://luminous-landscape.com/on-pr...d-definitions/. It points out not only how recent high-quality inkjet printing is, but also how limited ANY artistic color printing was until a few years ago.

[Polar01]

Very interesting read, now I do pay a annual fee of $12.00 a year to have access to Luminous Landscape, I believe that you can not read the article unless you are a member. I feel that it is one of the better deals out there well worth the money.

Cheers: Allan

[Manfred M]

I agree with Allan; I am a subscriber too. LuLa is one of the best bargains for pay sites for serious photographers.

The article is very much in line with my understanding of high quality inkjet printing. I can get better images now with a modern pigment printer than I could with the Cibachrome / Ilfochrome process with my 3880, but it could not quite get the Dmax of a traditional silver paper. The current generation, like my P800 beats the silver papers and print life, in both colour and B&W, on archival papers can now be measured in decades and in some cases, centuries, depending on print handling and storage.

[DanK]

Indeed. I print with the Prograf 1000, which as I'm sure you know is a very close competitor to the P800. Both it and the Pro-100 (dye-based) that I used before this produce truly stunning images, and at very low cost compared to pre-digital color.

BTW, this is off topic, but I read lots of reviews while trying to decide between the P800 and the Prograf. The main differences were in features, not in print quality.

[Manfred M]

BTW, this is off topic, but I read lots of reviews while trying to decide between the P800 and the Prograf. The main differences were in features, not in print quality.

Based on the print makers that I know, the general consensus is that Epson does a deeper and more neutral B&W. Epson also has a wider selection of branded papers.

[DanK]

Based on the print makers that I know, the general consensus is that Epson does a deeper and more neutral B&W. Epson also has a wider selection of branded papers.

Their general consensus is inconsistent with the reviews I read. I don't recall which ones I read then, but I just picked three out of a search, and all said that the Prograf produces if anything a deeper black than the P800:

https://www.digitalphotopro.com/gear...e-of-printing/
https://www.architecturelab.net/epso...photo-printer/
https://luminous-landscape.com/canon...rinter-review/

which is consistent with what I recall reading back then. However, every review I have read concluded that the differences between the two are very slight. The main differences I found were functional: the P800 can take paper rolls, the Prograf has more reliable paper feeding, and the Prograf keeps both matte and regular black online and switches on its own as needed.

It's true that Epson has some very good papers that I would probably use if I owned the Epson, but given the wide array of excellent papers from many vendors, I have never felt the loss. (I use Canon papers primarily for things that don't matter much to me and haven't experimented with their better papers. I just use the ones that were bundled. My mid-level papers are Moab and Red River, and at this point, my high-end papers are Canson Infinity.)

[Manfred M]

Unfortunately, reviewers only go so far. The people I talk to make their living making prints, not writing reviews.

They were able to clearly show me that Canon printers (I believe it was the same model that you use) have a very slight magenta cast in B&W mode.

[DanK]

I’m skeptical. The only time I got a magenta cast in B&W was with my old pro 100 when I didn’t realize that I needed to give control over color to the printer when printing and white. I changed hat setting and reprinted, and the second try had no cast. I haven’t noticed any color cast with the Prograf (giving control to the printer), and in fact, I have one B&W on display in a gallery now. I also don’t recall ever reading of that problem in any reviews, even high-end reviews. I wouldn’t have bought it if I had.

EDIT: I just pulled a copy of this one:



out of storage, where it has been waiting for me to frame it for our own use. It's an exact copy of the one I have in a gallery--same size and paper. It was as I recalled: no magenta cast at all.





Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[davidedric]

Thanks, Dan, I'll certainly have a read of that (I'm a LuLa subscriber)

I also found Jeff Schewe's book The Digital Print interesting.

It was good to read about Graham Nash's contribution. He first emerged as a guitarist with the Manchester band The Hollies, whom I saw many times back in the sixties.