Permanence of Silver Prints Revisited in 2020

[Guillaume Zuili]

I have only done fibre base prints for customers, RC for contact sheets only... i have been doing this since 1991 , I would never consider an RC print for exhibition but that is just my 2cents on the matter.

4 cents now

 

[logan2z]

4 cents now

Make that 6. I haven't seen the latest generation Ilford RC paper but I used the previous generation and wouldn't use it for anything other than contact sheets.

 

[MattKing]

I have been using RC papers (mostly Ilford and Oriental) with great satisfaction for many years now - they are capable of extremely high quality results.
I have received compliments on the quality of some of my prints from people who are stalwart advocates of fibre based papers. Some of them were surprised when they became aware that my prints were on RC.
Whatever material you choose, you need to become familiar with it in order to take advantage of its strengths.

 

[Sal Santamaura]

...I drymount black and white prints, so RC is off my list of options anyway...

Why? RC is perfectly compatible with dry mounting; just keep tight control over press temperature. I've done it many times.

 

[Vaughn]

Surface qualities of a paper are an important characteristics that I consider in my work...texture, gloss, feel, as well as structural qualities such as sizing and strength (wet and dry). RC paper has never fit the bill, but there have been some interesting ones...there was a Luminos RC that had a remarkably close surface to that of paper.

 

[DREW WILEY]

Why? (not drymounting RC). The surface of the RC paper under heating tends to conform to the surface texture of the backing board itself and results in orangepeel. Later there might be a differential in exp/contraction, resulting in curling or bonding failure. Seen it happen. But I'm speaking from a background of large color RC, where drymount heat inevitably causes gloss unevenness too. Heat mounting has been almost totally abandoned for color work. I've never tried it with small matte b&w RC prints, since my only experience with those was that old Luminos paper Vaughn mentioned.

 

[Sal Santamaura]

Why? (not drymounting RC). The surface of the RC paper under heating tends to conform to the surface texture of the backing board itself and results in orangepeel...

I've not experienced that problem. Perhaps because the board had a very smooth surface with almost no perceptible texture.

...Later there might be a differential in exp/contraction, resulting in curling or bonding failure. Seen it happen. But I'm speaking from a background of large color RC, where drymount heat inevitably causes gloss unevenness too...

These have not been issues with the relatively small black and white RC prints I've dry mounted, the latter likely a benefit of tight press temperature control.

...Heat mounting has been almost totally abandoned for color work...

I've totally abandoned wet color prints. Digital origination plus inkjet printing is so superior in terms of result quality, and longevity of the two are so similar, it no longer seems worth the effort.

 

[DREW WILEY]

Well, there's ZERO long term evidence on the permanence of inkjet prints. But Aardenburg has explained some of the complication to me, which I already suspected. There are just so many ingredients involved in those inks of differing characteristics, that not only does print differ from print in terms of susceptibility, but even different colors in the same print. They're complex blends of dyes, tiny pigments, and lakes (dyed inert pigments). Laser prints are exactly the same as optical prints on the same specific Çhromogenic papers, in terms of their own hypothetical permanence. How will this all turn out? I'm not going to be around to find out! I learned to take accelerating aging tests with a grain of salt back when I was involved with industrial pigments. It's a helpful tool, but simply can't take into account all the potential variables.