Curves for Awagami

InkjetMall Customer Support Piezography Inks & Printing
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Thanks Dana and Jeff, I get the impression when looking through the threads that my neutral ink set is probably not the best choice for Awagami. The darker ink sets seem to predominate. I’m looking forward to Jeff’s impressions. I’m away next week but I’ve ordered the sampler which will be here upon my return.

I’ll report back on K6 Kozo curves soon. It should be a good test for Roy’s droplet. If IJM were to allow remote profiling, I would be a lot more inclined to use it, but waiting two weeks or paying courier charges stretches my patience and/or wallet.

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Ok, I took my favourite curve for when I have no idea - Innova Smooth Cotton and put it through the droplet. I’ll attach two grabs. The first is using the Smooth Cotton curve, and the second is after going through the droplet. It’s not the best result that I’ve had with the droplet but it’s worth the time IMHO.

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Hi Jeff~

There’s no reason not to use your current Neutral ink tone on Awagami papers, I think all Piezography ink tones work well with Japanese papers, it’s just about what “look” you want to achieve.
None of our Piezography ink sets will print “darker” on Awagami papers, all ink tones will work well, as long as you use a curve specific to your printer/ink/paper setup (which I see you’re working on with Roy’s Droplet tool). Can you go thru the Droplet process again with your new curve, to smooth out the light shadow range? Otherwise, it looks very good/linear!

Best regards~ Dana

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Jeff, I will just add that using Japanese papers is not a replacement for using Western papers. It’s a totally different aesthetic. The comparison may be closer to making a platinum print rather than a silver print. If one wants deep dark blacks, the platinum / palladium process can not do that. It just can’t. But, if one wants endlessly long mid-tones and quarter-tones - then silver can not reproduce what platinum and palladium can. So - the aesthetics of the metal are what usually makes a photographer choose Pt/Pd over Silver.

With Japanese papers - I actually prefer the uncoated papers. While they have even less dMax than the coated versions - the shimmery surface of the uncoated papers impart that same effect onto the Piezography inks. So, when I use them, I do not print images that require dark blacks - just a convincing black. When I make Pt/Pd prints I also do not look for images which require huge dMax. With Japanese papers it’s about a convincing black (think Minor White).

So look for images of yours that are more about the tones in the middle… Print these on the Japanese papers and you should be much happier. The shadows should not be the main subject. Or a strong black should not be necessary to convey the meaning. The Bizan by Awagami is capable of printing greater dMax but is very expensive. While the other Awagami papers are very reasonably priced - it just takes creating a different aesthetic to get the most out of them.

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Hi Dana,

Thanks. I’ll do another pass through the droplet. So far it has only taken a single pass but that was using a curve that was for the paper, not one that I was just trying. I’m doing this on a new 1430, having decided to try a second time. I’m tied up for a week or so now, but will do the second pass and report back.

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Thanks Jon. That makes it a lot clearer. Now the challenge will be to source uncoated papers in Australia. The company that is importing the inkjet paper is a graphics outfit, not a paper importer. Pt/Pd is a look that I like a lot so it’s well worth the chase.