'Lithable' Paper News[h=3]Good news for lith printers? Foma changes emulsion specification again[/h]It was a considerable blow to lith printers in 2012 when Foma announced changes to the emulsion used in its Fomatone papers and that 131, 132, (MG Classic FB glossy and matt), 133 (stipple), 542-11(Chamois) and 532-11 (Nature11) were changed, apparently due to a new source for the gelatine.
This small change effectively prohibited the infectious development on which the lith printing process relies. Papers processed in Lith developer still produced prints in similar colours to lith prints, but with a more 'linear' development and without the other so-essential characteristics of lith printing.
I wrote up the details at the time in the Lith Materials Guide.
In September of this year (2014) Foma began a programme of further changes to these emulsions to restore their infectious development. The important batch details are:
Baryta base:
- Fomatone MG Classic 131 from batch No. 0685*. New version now available.
- Fomatone MG Classic 132 and 532-11 'Nature' - batch No. 0680. New version now available.
- Fomatone MG Classic 133 - this paper is currently still only available in the stock from the old production batches No. 0561, 0563, 0574. New emulsion for 133 will be on 0685 and 0690.
- Fomatone MG Classic 542-11 not yet known. Available only from old batches 0578, 0663 and 0664.
*NOTE: New emulsion batch 0690 for 131, 132,133 coated just this week and 'should decrease the sensitometric differences between them' (see below for explanation). Not yet available for testing.
RC base - still only available from the old batches:
- Fomatone MG 331 batches No. 0385, 0469
- Fomatone MG 332 batches No. 0400, 0469
- Fomatone MG 333 batches No. 0353, 0469
'New' emulsion batches are currently not planned.
How well does it work?
We must regard this as still work in progress. These are early stages of an emulsion change and at the moment 132 and 532-11 (new batch 0680) work better in lith than 131 batch 0685, although this is improved by using higher dilutions and KBr (see below).
Foma have been working on this and the new coating 0690 is intended to bring the specification of 131 closer to the other two. I hope to test this soon.
At present there is a clear difference in lith between the glossy 131 and both the matt 132 and 532-11 'Nature'. Although nominally the same, 131 has a faster paper speed and less infectious response at the dilutions more commonly used by busy or impatient lith printers who want short development times!
However, all three - including 131 up to a point - lith print much better with higher dilutions. Colours and contrasts are reasonably comparable to the original 'lithable' versions and get progressively much warmer with more convincing infectious development as more water is added to the developer. 131 still lags behind the others though and with increasing exposure gives flat prints with poor blacks. A little 10% potassium bromide (KBr) gives a very dramatic improvement - but of course lengthens the development time greatly.
Although much improved 'lith-wise', a downside with these emulsion changes is that the development time to a typical mid-point snatch-point is much longer - approximately double in my new/old side-by-side tests. Higher dilutions of course extend this further - and KBr even more so! Bad news for the impatient. So, for the sake of your art, be prepared to put on some music, pull up a chair, relax, rock the dish and be patient.
As usual with this emulsion, the colours change greatly on drying. Dry-down with these lith prints is considerable - probably in excess of half a stop and might catch you out.
Toning:
As expected, lith prints on these papers tone beautifully in selenium and gold, especially with the warmer higher dilution prints.
Selenium initially cools off the colour in the blacks and gives a satisfying DMax boost. The shadow tone colour then slowly shifts to rich, even gingerly brown, whilst the mid tones cool down before also warming up. I haven't so far achieved quite the same beautiful tri-tone splits as with the original emulsion, but this might just be a question of further experimentation.
Gold toner (direct) in the 'high-dilution' peachy prints initially gives a marked shift towards the red spectrum and then slowly moves the lighter tones towards lilacs, purples and on to blue, giving lovely two-tone splits along the way. Although the colour here too is more muted than the 'good old stuff', remember that the gold never stops when you take it out of the toner, but continues into the wash, with the colour increasing further on dry-down. Be careful.
New UK distributer
The new official UK distributor is
Darkside, based in London.
NOTE: As emulsion changes are still underway my Lith Printing Materials Guide has NOT yet been updated with these changes.