Differences between transparency materials?

[mark]

What is the difference between the different transparency materials. Some are not perfectly clear, others are. Why would they not be clear or have a removable blank sheet like in the old days with copy machines? Why do folks seem to prefer pictorico?

I am walking slowly into the digital negative for carbon arena and want to standardize right away while I learn. So, Epson p400 or 600 will be the printer, Yupo will be the tissue support, baryta paper will be the final print paper, but the negative material has me confused. How is one different from the other, and which will give the best support?

 

[nmp]

Some are not perfectly clear, others are. Why would they not be clear or have a removable blank sheet like in the old days with copy machines?

They are hazy or translucent as the special receptive coating for inkjet ink makes them so. No idea why they do not have interleaving sheets...probably cost. Come to think of it, why did the old copy machine transparencies have them in the first place?

 

[mark]

Come to think of it, why did the old copy machine transparencies have them in the first place?

Back in the day I asked a xerox tech the same thing. He said the paper was there on most machines to give the rollers something to grab as they were designed to grip something that was not slippery. On other machines the paper was there to show the machine that there was indeed something loaded in the tray. The copy machine I use at work has a transparency setting and does not need the white paper. I had an old box of transparencies and gave it a shot.

 

[Mainecoonmaniac]

AFIK, some are made for UV blocking like screen printing and alt photo processes. The milky white sheets are for backlit displays like you see in retail stores. In the old days before inkjet printers, backlit Point of Sale displays were Duratrans, a type of C printing process. As for copier sheets, they were made to withstand high temperatures of copier fusers. A static charge would attract the carbon in the machine then a fuser would bond the carbon on to the sheet. I'm old enough to have seen and work on overhead transparencies with a 3M product. The process uses a special film and printed material. It's sandwiched with plastic sheet and the other end, the transparency would come out. A lot of that type of film called "OHP" or Overhead projection which doesn't mean much. Do some research before you buy.

 

[nmp]

Back in the day I asked a xerox tech the same thing. He said the paper was there on most machines to give the rollers something to grab as they were designed to grip something that was not slippery. On other machines the paper was there to show the machine that there was indeed something loaded in the tray. The copy machine I use at work has a transparency setting and does not need the white paper. I had an old box of transparencies and gave it a shot.

Makes sense. It's been a while since I had to make a presentation with transparencies...