About the paper

Both papers are 285gm/m² with the semi-glazed at 306 microns thick and the glazed at 315 microns.

They were flat, out of the box, and showed no signs of surface flaking or scratches.

The picture above gives a good idea of the stiffness of the sheets.

 

 

 

 

Testing uses lots of paper...

With lots of different papers coming to the market now, I'll quote the specs from Innova.

FibaPrint Semi - Glazed – 285g/m2 (IFA58)

The FibaPrint Super Glazed version (285g/m2 - IFA59) is very similar.

As you can see from the specs below, the main difference is in the final finish.

IFA58 High white digital baryta paper Satin semi ‘glazed’ surface Crystal layer technology – the revolutionary crystal layer is unique to FibaPrint and creates a barrier layer between the fibre base and the micro porous glossy coating. This quality allows the paper to retain excellent, sharp detail, enhanced tonal range and a D-max rating up to 2.7. Fibre based photo quality Archival – Acid & lignin free Instant dry Pigment & dye ink compatible Excellent colour gamut for colour photography Exceptional D-max

IFA59 High white digital baryta paper Ultra glossy super ‘glazed’ shiny surface – the first fibre based digital paper with the shine and look of a ferrotype dried traditional darkroom paper. Crystal layer technology – the revolutionary crystal layer is unique to FibaPrint and creates a barrier layer between the fibre base and the micro porous glossy coating. This quality allows the paper to retain excellent, sharp detail, enhanced tonal range and a D-max rating up to 2.7. Fibre based photo quality Archival – Acid & lignin free Instant dry Pigment & dye ink compatible Excellent colour gamut for colour photography Exceptional D-max up to 2.7

It's obvious that both these papers have more than an element of their marketing directed at people who used to do B/W printing in the darkroom, and the semi-glazed did remind me of some paper prints I'd done in the darkroom at school, back in the late 70's ;-) ...I do so much prefer digital :-)

The papers are available in a wide range of sizes, in sheet and roll format.

I used them with the suggested Photo black (Pk) ink in the 4880.

Using icc profiles

Whilst Innova do have a range of profiles for their papers, they were not available for these papers and the 4880, so after some quick tests to confirm that the Premium Luster(260) setting was a good one for printing, I created some profiles for testing.

If you're curious I have an article on choosing media settings and some media test images.

The two shots below (of parts of my 1728 patch test prints for profiling) show the different finishes of the papers. Do note that I've adjusted these images quite a bit to show surface finish, so they are not terribly good indicators of paper and print colours.

Due to the slightly thicker paper, the platten width on the printer was set to 'W' and the suction level to high to avoid head strikes at the start of prints.

For black and white I tried printing using the Epson ABW printing mode, which I know works very well for Epson papers. I did use my custom profiles as well, but the ABW mode can often give better results and exhibit less colour shifts with different lighting. This is one reason I like to know the kind of lighting that my big prints will be viewed under.

I use my own B/W test image for this (article and download). It shows up a whole range of potential issues, and is my own personal standard for testing papers for B/W.

A paper has to look good with the test image before I'll consider using it for my work. Remember though that paper selection is a very personal matter, so you should always see how your images look on a sample of the paper once you know that you are getting accurate prints on it.

The usual issues with 3rd party papers and the Epson ABW print mode is that you tend to get slight non-linearity in the greyscale response. this can be corrected with a QTR icc profile. I'll not go over the mechanisms for creating one here, since I've several articles describing the process with different measuring instruments.

B/W with the PrintFIX (now Spyder3Print)
B/W with the ColorMunki

Choosing the Luster(260) setting and 'neutral' for the print, the shadows were opened up a bit too much.

It's difficult to show here, but the two photos of prints, before and after applying a QTR icc profile show, the difference. (The slight colour differences are from the lighting and not visible in the prints)

Epson ABW default setting

After printing (same Epson driver settings) using a QTR icc profile

In the first print, the bull's eye patch is too concentrated toward the middle and there is detail -clearly- visible behind the log in the top RH picture. There should be detail visible here, but it should take a bit of effort to see it clearly.

When testing the papers, I printed out some test strips at different Epson driver settings and measured them. If you look at the measurements you can see which set requires the least correction in the form of a QTR icc profile. For best results, you generally want to minimise the work done by the correcting profile.

Yes, I am this picky when testing paper :-) - it allows me to concentrate on getting the image looking right when editing and then knowing that printing won't have any nasty surprises lurking in the shadows... My own approach to photography and printing is that if I know the technical side really well, then most of the time when taking photos or printing, I can effectively forget about all the techy details and concentrate on getting the image/print I want.

Print Quality

As you can see from the pictures in this article, I always do loads of prints of known test images as well as images of my own.

I do particularly recommend the Datacolor one for colour prints - I have a copy (with explanations about its use) available for download.

You can get a feel for the surface finishes in the extreme reflection photos above, but both papers printed very impressive looking colour and monochrome, with deep rich colours and blacks.

The papers do contain optical brightening agents, so may be a concern for some more archival uses, although the papers are quoted as "Acid & lignin free".

The image to the right was taken in a local bar with my 1Ds Mk3 and converted to the ProPhoto colour space.

It has some very strong colours and is quite a harsh test for any printer/paper/ink combination (remember you are seeing a restricted gamut sRGB web version).

No problem at all for the 4880 and its inks on these papers.

My personal favourite of the two papers is probably the semi-glazed, but they are both ones I'm happy to include in my collection.

The papers are not as rugged as many lighter papers, and you should take care in handling the prints. This is from Innova:

• As with all Fine Art papers our Digital Fine Art papers are fragile and need to be handled with extreme care. Try not to touch the surface of the paper, hold by the edges and wear cotton gloves if necessary.
• The FibaPrint glossy papers will mark more easily with grease from your fingertips, so be extra careful with these papers.
• Return unused paper to the original box and store flat. If storing the paper outside the original box, only use archival packaging.
• Leave papers open to the air to fully dry for a few hours after printing, (24 hours are recommended) and avoid stacking on top of each other straight away.
• Using a giclée varnish or spray will help protect your print further from damage, effects of UV light and environmental attack.

Whilst I'd agree with their comments, I think it's less fragile than other similarly finished papers.

The prints (semi-glazed) draped on the printer give a bit more of an impression of how the paper handles and how the prints 'feel' - you'll just have to try some to get a better impression ;-)

The image below (Bradgate Park - top entrance, Leicester, December), taken when first testing my 1Ds3 and 14mm lens, has a great deal of detail and dark colours in the shadows.

An A3+ print on the Semi-glazed paper really presents this well - enough that a visitor to the office remarked just how well it captured the look of the park at that time of year.

Summary

A solid and relatively robust pair of papers (for the paper type) that print a rich range of colours and superbly deep blacks.

Available from Innova and many distributors in a wide variety of sizes (up to 60" roll).

Needs custom profiles (at the moment) for colour on the 4880 (check the Innova site for latest profile availability).

Fine tuning of the Epson ABW print settings give very good black and white performance.

A personal health warning about paper reviews ;-)

One of my pet hates is when I see comparative reviews of papers in some magazines that include a stack of spurious tables and diagrams covering various measurements about printer/paper/ink performance. Most are utterly meaningless (without -detailed- explanations of the theory and practice behind them). The most egregious nonsense is posting gamut volume numbers to six figure accuracy... Assume that the graphs are there to bulk out the article or make the reviewer look clever ;-)

Similarly I just couldn't be bothered to measure the D-max of many papers (how black is black) - there is so much more to what makes a fine print than some spurious measurement accuracy. Note that I don't apply this when I'm making profiles, that's one time I am bothered about lots of measurements and their accuracy and their consistency.

I have a few colour images that I'll print on a heavy matt rag paper on my old Epson 9600. It really has a somewhat restricted gamut due to the ink limits and original Ultrachrome Inks I use. The images just work on that paper. Gamut and D-max are just two aspects of deciding how you want your prints to look.

Print choices are a personal thing - if you just choose papers by numbers then your prints will (IMHO) lack something.

Other related info

Innova Soft Textured Natural White Paper (IFA12)
Innova Smooth Cotton Natural/High White paper review. Two versions of Innova's cotton based art papers. IFA-11 and IFA-14. Tested on the HP Z3200 and Epson 9600.
Innova FibaPrint papers - heavy fibre based papers, a similar feel to traditional B/W photo prints
Innova Photo Canvas
All our paper reviews
Black and white test image - a very harsh (but fair) test
Colour management links on this site
Media settings and profiling for third party inks
Keith recently converted an Epson Stylus COLOR 1160 to third party inks. In describing the profiling of a this set-up with a third party glossy paper, he shows how that often neglected aspect of profiling -driver media settings- can make all the difference between a so-so print and one that he would be happy to send out as a sample to his commercial clients.
The PrintFIX PRO review - good profiling package with black and white options
Printer profiling with the Eye One Photo - review
Why don't my prints match my screen?
A short article showing why there is more to getting your prints to match your screen, than just calibrating your monitor. It's the vital first step, but you do need to consider some other factors for best results.
Reviews on this site
Other Articles on this site

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