I am remembering an book at a library visit 25 years ago. It was a Kodak publication , highly gloss , very strong thin paper printed with silvery ink.
The Jacket was black , may be textile. Everything was intense quality. I want to reach these book series name .May be that paper is even used by national geographic also , same finish , touch , flexibility , tone experience.
I can't help you with the book, but it got me reminiscing of my college days. One of our engineering classes took a field trip to the small town of Wyckliffe, Kentucky to tour the paper mill there in the early 1990s. The special thing they did there was make the paper for National Geographic. We were told that they made the paper at a loss for the prestige of being able to say that they made the paper for National Geographic. Sadly, I just found out that they are going to be idling the mill indefinitely beginning November 1, 2015. This is according to WPSD-TV in Paducah, KY.
Kodak made several books with black jackets in the timeframe of the '50s to about 2010, which was the last one I have seen.
The jackets varied to include those with rust red jackets as well.
The early ones were hard cover but sometime in the '80s or thereabouts, they changed to a soft leather like cover.
These books include the Color Handbook, the B&W Handbook, and several others on a multitude of subjects. They even sold empty handbooks with just the title "Kodak Handbook" and then sold "how to" books to put in them so that you could personalize your library. I have about a dozen of the books along with a series of replacement booklets that were published to keep process and film data up to date.
The entire library could fill the trunk of a car and then some. You can guess how I know that!
I think Kodak books used higher density but thinner papers. I had lots of ngs magazines and older they are , paper is became less dense and thicker by time. I dont know much about papers but I think ng prints are designed to more resistant to harsh use within time.
The wonderful think about Kodak books , their ink. Its like silver at mid grades and darker than night at shadows. Such a grade 4 contrast.
I did not see a higher res. print. But When I was working at most advanced prepress house in the world , I scanned my slides - elmar 50 on leitz iiic - and half toned them %220 of resolution of national geographic with same screening and printed them with fuji printing press proofing system- dye transfer method not inkjet.