Ilford Galerie Cotton paper for alt processes

ole-squint

Subscriber
Joined
Jul 17, 2007
Messages
43
Format
Medium Format
Hi all. Anybody tried Ilford Galerie Cotton papers with alt processes? They're intended for digital printing, but they're 100% cotton, free of optical brightners. I normally use Cot 320, but they're always backordered (along with direct positive film).

thanks-----------------
 

nmp

Member
Joined
Jan 20, 2005
Messages
2,028
Location
Maryland USA
Format
35mm

They tend to be highly absorbent on account of not having any sizing in them as you would have in traditional watercolor papers. So the sensitizer just get sucked into the paper. For the same reason, they also tend to not hold up well in wet processing. Perhaps they can be used by pre-sizing with something like gelatin, starch etc. I have never tried it. Aren't there other papers like HPR, Arches Platine, etc available instead?

:Niranjan.
 

koraks

Moderator
Moderator
Joined
Nov 29, 2018
Messages
23,231
Location
Europe
Format
Multi Format
There's so many papers to choose from...

Anyway, it might be worth a try, although it sounds like a relatively expensive option to me that also has some potential drawbacks. Apart from what Niranjan says above, I also wonder about the actual paper surface and what kind of treatment this has received. They say it's 100% cotton, but if you take an unsized, 100% coarse-textured paper as this is supposed to be, ink bleed in an inkjet application would preclude the imaging of *any* detail whatsoever. So odds are that there is actually some surface finish and sizing added to it. Keep in mind also that unsized paper is *extremely* rare unless you count toilet paper as one. Modern papers are virtually always sized, whether with gelatin or a more modern material such as AKD.
Finally, inkjet papers tend to have a microporous surface finish which helps in rapid drying; I'm not sure if this particular paper fits in that category, because it's a bit different than regular inkjet papers, but they must have taken into account issues such as bleed & other types of dot gain, drying time etc.

Do they happen to have sample packs or other small volumes? It's easy enough to take a sheet, cut it up and have a couple of tries with it.
 
Cookies are required to use this site. You must accept them to continue using the site. Learn more…