Crane Museo Silver Rag

The Museo Silver Rag paper from Crane arrived today. I have just finished some prints.

I say, "wow."

The printable surface, and now I'm looking at it without any ink on it, has the look and feel of my old darkroom Gallerie fiber paper. It is really nice. I don't think I'm going to get jobs as a reviewer with words like, "nice." Okay, how about - sweet.

When I first printed with it, the suggestion was to use the Premium Semi-Gloss setting which is fine, but this paper is thicker and stiffer than Premium Semi-Gloss so there was some ink being picked up on the side where the paper curved up a little.

I went into the "Paper Config" screen and changed the paper thickness setting to: 15 (0.1 mm); and instead of "Auto" changed the Platen Gap to "Wide." Oh, and I gave it a little more time to dry between passes. In advanced b&w mode on the Epson 4800 you don't use - in fact you can't use - a profile. Let the driver do the work for you.

Anyway - one or all of those tweaks fixed the problem of ink catching on the right side of the paper edge.

It is difficult to quantify a "look." I'm just saying that this is the first thick, heavy cotton paper with an air-dried fiber darkroom look. Very beautiful. Definitely will end the "ripple" effect you get with lighter papers. Sweet.

What else can I tell you - it has been designed to work with the Photo Black cartridge. I didn't make any other changes in my printer settings. And when this paper comes out - it is what I will use.

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And give the paper time to dry. I'm looking at it the next morning - even better. I realize I'm using subjective words like, "better, nice etc." but can you describe a look that you like without simply comparing it to some known quality? Holding one of my best darkroom fiber prints next to the Museo Silver Rag print - under the light - I sure can tell one from the other. I can tell because the surfaces aren't exactly the same; because I know if I hold the inkjet print at a certain angle under the light I'm going to get a sheen that will spread out over the entire print that won't be as pronounced with the darkroom fiber print. And I can tell because the Museo paper has a cotton feel to the touch, at least the non-printable side.

But framed, under glass, not knowing one from the other - I could take a good guess. But the point is that the Silver Rag has an equally luxurious and rich feel to it.