Papers For Lith

[MrBrowning]

For the lith printers out there. What are your favorite papers? I'd have to say mine is Ektalure which I'm starting to run out of. So any suggestions on old or new papers that you think are the best?

 

[WHof]

Fomatone or Oriental Warm (which in effect print the same) but you are not going to get the pinks you may like with straight prints.

 

[Rich Ullsmith]

Almost anything old and graded will lith. To varying degrees. Old Oriental g3 and g4 age very well, my guess is they are very slow to begin with. These appear on ebay from time to time, ektalure is for me boring by comparison. I cannot comment on any new papers.

 

[MrBrowning]

Fomatone or Oriental Warm (which in effect print the same) but you are not going to get the pinks you may like with straight prints.

Is that the new papers or are you talking old papers?

Almost anything old and graded will lith. To varying degrees. Old Oriental g3 and g4 age very well, my guess is they are very slow to begin with. These appear on ebay from time to time, ektalure is for me boring by comparison. I cannot comment on any new papers.

I'll have to check ebay and keep an eye out. The thing I like about Ektalure is that I can get a nicely detailed print out of it almost every time with beautiful yellows.

 

[jeffreythree]

Problem with old stuff is I run out soon after figuring it out. I found cheap Multitone from BH does well for me second pass and need to get some of the current Fomatone to try. I hope Adox gets theirs out soon as well since I have more mediocre old lith papers than good now.

 

[mooseontheloose]

My favourite paper has always been Fomatone papers, but I still have boxes of the old formulation, not the new stuff. I've also been experimenting with Fuji's Fujibro RC paper which liths (graded, not variable) and has nice sandy colours, although I like it better for second-pass lith, as it is smoother and less grainy. Unfortunately it's not really available to anyone outside of Japan.

 

[M Carter]

Ektalure is just god's own paper for lith. I have about 40 sheets of 16x20 left...

Agfa MC111 and Brovira show up fairly often on eBay - not the most gorgeous color, but variable sepia will give you a lot of control. Brovira can get impressive blacks. Nothing gives me the deep reds like Ektalure though. If you want a stash of lithable papers, you just have to buy a lot and test them. Even severely fogged paper can give white borders and snappy highlights for lith. When I get a new (old) pack in, I develop a small strip and tape it to the box so I know how bad the fog is. But I've paid good money for paper that's pure black.

Maco RF is gorgeous lith paper, and goes nuts with Moersch Omega. I'd about kill for some big sheets of that stuff.

Plenty of people use modern Ilford MGIV Warmtone - I haven't had good success though, pretty mottled looking. I have some old RC papers, Ilford and Kodak that liths OK sometimes, sometimes not, seems to work better of you really wash it well after exposing and works OK for 2nd pass.

Basically, every time you spot a deal on old paper, you have to google it with the word "lith" and see what you can find. (Of course, half the time google thinks you meant "light"...)

 

[WHof]

Browning - I'm talking new papers. I get what I consider pretty pleasing yellow/oranges - see the attached.

 

[Bob Carnie]

I have not lith printed in a while - I love texture with lith any comments on Art 300 or other textured papers. I have a large project coming up that will require lith prints from enlarged negs.

 

[MrBrowning]

Ektalure is just god's own paper for lith. I have about 40 sheets of 16x20 left...

Agfa MC111 and Brovira show up fairly often on eBay - not the most gorgeous color, but variable sepia will give you a lot of control. Brovira can get impressive blacks. Nothing gives me the deep reds like Ektalure though. If you want a stash of lithable papers, you just have to buy a lot and test them. Even severely fogged paper can give white borders and snappy highlights for lith. When I get a new (old) pack in, I develop a small strip and tape it to the box so I know how bad the fog is. But I've paid good money for paper that's pure black.

Maco RF is gorgeous lith paper, and goes nuts with Moersch Omega. I'd about kill for some big sheets of that stuff.

Plenty of people use modern Ilford MGIV Warmtone - I haven't had good success though, pretty mottled looking. I have some old RC papers, Ilford and Kodak that liths OK sometimes, sometimes not, seems to work better of you really wash it well after exposing and works OK for 2nd pass.

Basically, every time you spot a deal on old paper, you have to google it with the word "lith" and see what you can find. (Of course, half the time google thinks you meant "light"...)

Thank you for the input. I'll keep an eye out for the maco paper. I've not had very good luck with ilford WT either but I probably should give it another go to see what I can do. I keep looking for darkrooms in the area that have old photo paper to buy, typically the enlargers go to the local college along with anything else that I don't need.

Browning - I'm talking new papers. I get what I consider pretty pleasing yellow/oranges - see the attached.

Thank you. That has a very pleasing color to it. I'll add it to my shopping list.