First test
Permajet Double Sided Lustre 295 PRICE: £24.95 (25 A4 SHEETS) Expand your presentation potential with Permajet’s latest double-sided paper, ideal for printing your own greetings cards, business cards and photo books
PERMAJET.COM
THERE ARE ANY number of fabulous ways to show off your photographs in print form, thanks to the incredible choice of media, the quality of home photo printers and the huge diversity of services offered by online services. Permajet has now added to its three-strong collection of papers that can be printed on both sides, with its Double Sided Lustre 295, available in A4, A3, A3+ and A2 sheet size. The option to print on both sides is a real benefit. I always have a box on the shelf and my Christmas cards last year were made on double-sided paper. I also use double-sided in my portfolio with its clear acetate sheets, so there’s no need for a backing sheet. Permajet uses this paper for its own Snapshut Folio, too. I began the test by making a custom ICC profile using an X-Rite i1 Studio. I then used the result to produce these prints with the latest Photoshop and an Epson SC-P800 printer loaded with Epson inks. For reproduction in the magazine, the prints were copied using a Nikon Z 7 and studio flash and the prints were checked in daylight and daylight-balanced LED lighting. The paper’s base contains OBAs (optical brightening agents), resulting in a clean neutral white; not cool, not warm, just neutral. The surface finish is lovely with a smooth, almost glossy sheen and the lustre is neither pronounced or stippled. It’s good with handling, too. Running my fingers over the surface of my final prints didn’t leave any grease marks or fine scratches that sometimes happens with a glossy finish. Prints emerged dry to the touch. To test the double-sided printing potential, I tried leaving the first print aside for a few hours before printing the second image. At the other extreme, I just flipped the paper over and printed the second image immediately after the first to see if there was any scuffing or smudging with the first image while still fresh. I didn’t experience any problems. One potential issue of double-sided paper is ‘show-through’, where an image is visible from the opposite side. The 295gsm base weight of the paper, however, is designed to avoid this. To test this, I mixed images to see how well the paper coped with show-through, putting a lightly toned picture on one
side and a heavily toned image on the other, for example, and I also varied image sizes. Used and viewed normally, the final prints had no show-through. Putting its double-sided feature to one side for a second, I have to say this material produced very fine prints from the files I tried with it and dealt with a wide range of subject matter skilfully, as you can see from the results here. The prints looked lively and vibrant, yet controlled and not at all garish. Blacks had a lovely depth without being blocked and the mid-tones stayed nice and airy. All in all, I’d say printing performance was first rate. WC
ABOVE This paper is capable with colour and black & white images. There’s plenty of depth in the blacks and no blocking up, so deep shadows show good detail. No complaints either about highlights and mid-tones, which look great, too LEFT This studio test scene is handled superbly by Permajet’s new paper
RIGHT Double Sided Lustre 295 is equally adept at handling richly saturated images as it is with more subtle images like this. This high-key scene shot at Birling Gap shows how well it handles more delicate hues with smooth tonal transitions, too
PROS Print quality, surface finish, user friendly, suits wide range of subjects CONS None Verdict Permajet Double Sided Lustre 295 is an excellent product and a welcome addition to its range, offering photographers a very capable paper, with that extra special potential to make it an essential material to have in your stock.
SPECS › Prices and availability A4 25 sheets £24.95; A3 25 sheets £47.95; A3+ 25 sheets £59.95; A2 25 sheets £89.95 › Price £1 for an A4 sheet › Key features Instant touch-dry, lustre finish, water-resistant, excellent tonal range, exceptional ink absorption › Weight 295gsm › Thickness 0.29mm › Whiteness 115 › Coatings Double-sided lustre with an instant dry microporous receiving layer › Optical brightening agents Yes Contact permajet.com
LEFT The vibrant colours of this street scene have been reproduced faithfully by this new paper, including colours like blue and violet that can come out less convincingly on some papers
38 Photography News | Issue 85
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