Photographic Medias

Randy Hufford explains the different types of paper for printing.

Photographic Medias comes in matte papers, cast coated papers and micro porous papers. Let me just give little history of the types of photographic paper. Our paper as you can see here was a plain paper. The plain paper didn’t work with ink jet because when the ink hit that paper it just soak into the paper so there was no colored Gamma, no dot, the dot would just spread around and there is no vibrancy or sharpness to it. The first paper they made with coated papers, but particles on the papers where the ink can hold on to that the was the first product and then they made a cast coated or clay coated material that had a little bit better coating. And n they made a swelling type media where they took either a film or recent coated paper or some of the photographic paper and they had a swelling layer. And what that swelling layer did is when it swelled on; the ink actually went below the surface of the paper and thought that could be a better product to have less cop resistance. But what they found out over time is that the micro porous label which really is the same as the micro porous technology using canvas are really microscopic little cops that have been coated on to the recent coated paper or to the film that hold the ink. They are the ones that give you the best dots okay, the cleanest crispest dots. They’re the ones that’s soak into the paper; they’re the ones that have the high ink absorbing speed. They’re quick drying, they give good dot shape, they have high optical density, they’re water resistant, they have whiteness and there’s no cockling. The reason we still we would have a matte paper is that’s use a lot of times by shops that are making blue prints and they’re looking for a real economical paper. There is a matte paper that both Premier and Epson have called an enhanced matte and that matte paper is a really good product. Its still has a really good coating on it and that product when laminated it looks as good as a photographic paper. The micro porous luster paper, if you laminate you can’t tell a difference and that media is half the price of the recent coated paper. So an application for the matte paper would be big displays, commercial displays where you going to do amount and a laminate to a piece of gauge or boarder foam corner for the laminate over them. Cast coat is kind of old technology and you don’t see a lot of the name or you can’t get medias that are made cast coat or clay coat that are definitely way more economical. But did have no longevity and you can still find some that it have a pretty color gamut but they’re going to be ones, they’re going to fade right away. The papers that we’re using today the new technology of the new papers that we want to use as photographers, if we want to make images and look just like photos and we want a window matte and premium behind a Plexiglas and do traditional photographic. It’s going to be the micro porous, which has ceramic cups on it and its going to be the recent coated Medias. These come in glossy, luster and semi-matte and these are available from all the major manufactures and these papers still even have a really good radiant as far as longevity goes. There are so many special medias for ink jet printing now that it would be a take hours to tell all of the demand but just kind of give a kind of an overview of some of the special theme medias that I think are really fun to use and practical and to could be use in our application. One of them is banners, banners for either indoor use or outdoor use vinyl and poly tarpaulin and even some fabrics where you could sell them and you could grow in them. I’ve seen are the silks, silks are wonderful ones that I’ve seen sewn and bromated and uses outdoors signage at malls. So the vinyl, the poly tarpaulin, the fabrics, the silks, the cottons, there’s hundreds and hundreds or these types of Medias that work with all sorts of ink sets. Almost all of them work with the ink sets of the Medias that we’ve been talking about the longevity. So banners are one of the choices. The other one is a poster board. The poster board most of the printers out can take up to a super thick ten-point card stock and it allows you to print a poster board that were makes great instant window displays or aisle displays. I use it a lot for the front of the gallery scene that visiting artists, artist appearing tonight, I use it in a lot of trade shows, it just as a real quick easy way to make a display where you don’t have to mount or laminate anything. The backlit film is used on a regular basis for a lot of point of purchase sales displays. So pointer purchase displays, a lot of trade you see it, a lot of and big as you see it all over the place that all the slot machines, in a lot of commercial applications. This is a popular product because we see a lot of an activity does cause where we see a lot of the use of this product. It really draws attention because of the lights behind the film. So there’s backlit films, a front print backlit films that means your print traditionally right on the film like you with a regular media and then this back print films where you print on the backside of it. And you look through the film to see it. I find I haven’t been successful finding a really back print as I have with the front lead, but there’s no film coming out all the time. The clear films have two applications, one is for Cad that means the architects and designers, people that want to have a clear overlay on top of a you know a floor fill in. And they want to show and alternate floor plan that would be an application. The other clear film is used for making film positives or lying in top of the screens produced in silk screening. Almost all the silk screening industry has been totally change because of the clear film you can print out of your ink jet printers now. The other one is the adhesive backed Media that is a really powerful product where you can print on to either vinyl’s or in enhanced adhesive synthetic papers and you can make bumper sticker, door stickers, you can make stickers that go on windows, that’s just a really wonderful way. What I do is I put my bio and make my business card and then we print that leaves or shop has their advertising on the back of the print. Some other special team medias that are mentioned which they have big flat bed printers now that are using the other ink sets the UV curable ink sets and the solvent sets where they now can print on big sheets of metal, big sheets of Plexiglas and directly to gator and foam boards. So that technology was some of the new machines is totally amazing of the things that they can print on top of now.