articles/Paper/barytafb350-page1
by Mike McNamee Published 01/12/2009
This paper arrived as an experimental prototype but by the time we went to press it had been added to the Hahnemuhle Fine Art range, with a slight name change as indicated above. FB stands for 'fibre base' as this bright white, 350gsm, 100% alpha cellulose material is a baryta mimic of a traditional fibre base silver halide material. The initial impression is of a bright, very solid and quite sturdy paper with the merest hint of texture in the ultra-gloss surface.
We used our Epson 3800 as the test bed. At the time of testing no profiles were available on the Hahnemuhle website, a situation that has since changed and profiles are available for all the professional large-format printers and for the enthusiast A4/A3 printers from the major makers. We chose slightly different settings than the Hahnemuhle technicians, but the comparison below is still valid.
For our mono landscape test printing we used this Paul Gallagher landscape and the Epson Advanced Black and White driver set for neutral and at 'light' setting for a very crisp print with rich blacks and perfect neutrality.
Note also that, in common with other baryta papers, a platen gap of 'wider' is recommended along with a thickness of '5' and a drying time of '20' (see screen grab).
Choice of Black Point Compensation (BPC) is dodged by the Hahnemuhle instructions; we used BPC on as we always do.
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