I’m curious about what dmax others are seeing on baryta papers. In testing Hahnemuhle Photo Rag Baryta I’m seeing L3.5 with the PiezoPro inks after 2-3 days of drydown. On my Canon 9400 with OEM inks I measured L2.2 on Photo Rag Baryta.
These numbers are from the L* measurements of the darkest patches of the 51 step Piezography calibration target measured in Colorport.
The difference in dmax visually noticeable l when looking at the same image printed with Canon inks vs Pro inks.
The max ink is dialed down just slightly in the final iteration of PiezoPro to perfectly maintain gloss differential from highlight to shadow.
We consider anything darker than darkroom silver (min L* of 4.95) to be good enough.
That said, that particular paper could accommodate a darker L* (more shade 2 and shade 1 ink in the final step) without too much difficulty!
It’s something I’ve been thinking of optimizing. We achieve L* of 2.0 (or lower) on the glossy glossy papers on our R&D printers here at CEP. Our lowest L* to date is 1.31 on Harman Gloss Baryta. That said, this would show up as a very different glossiness compared to the rest of the print and our primary goal is to truly replicate tradition prints in the hand.
best,
Walker
A few of my measurements so far (Spot measured with i1Pro2 and i1Profiler, darkest patch of 129-step target, linearized curves):
Canson Baryta Photographique
Cool Curve, L2.68
Warm Curve, L2.42
Canson Platine Fibre Rag
Cool Curve, L2.61
Warm Curve, L2.41
Harman by Hahnemuhle Gloss Baryta
Cool Curve, L2.63
Warm Curve, L2.29
Dave
Yes, the warm actually has just slightly more ink in the final step than the cool because the underlying ink has way less pigment in it and is therefore glossier on the warm. Because of that we were able to push the amount of ink in the last step up a notch while maintaining uniform gloss differential.
-best,
Walker
Hey Brad. I’m working on a few new curves I’ll send your way that boost dMax on papers that can take the extra ink (aka, the hahnemuhle semi-gloss f/a papers).
That said, you should be getting in the 2.3 range for Canson Baryta.
//
re: PK-HD and traditional Piezography, these curves I developed after coming out with Pro ink. They do in fact get darker dMax than Pro because of the extra layer of gloss. At the most I was able to achieve sub L*1.0 on some of the glossier papers.
best,
Walker
Something is entirely off with your Pro printer. You should be in the 12.5 to 13.5 range for Matte. I think you may still have PiezoFlush in the line(s).
-Walker
Also, the linearization process only linearizes. I does not change dMax. That is a manual curve change process (actually changing the numbers by hand).
W