PQ Universal vs Harman Warmtone developer??

I've recently become enamored of Ilford's PQ Universal Developer (paper) after having used Ilford's Multigrade developer for years. I really like the warmer tonality it offers. Does anyone have any experience with PQ Universal and with Harman's Warmtone? Is the latter even warmer than the PQ? It's time to order more of something as I have a lot of printing to do for a show, and I'm looking for whatever will get me closer to Iford's Warmtone paper which I just can't afford. The paper I will use is Iford MGIV FB, btw. (Toning isn't quite right for the work I'm printing, although I admit to just starting to learn what I will want to know about that.)

Thanks for any help anyone can offer!

I have not noticed any sigificant difference between the two. I do think the WT developer might be a bit softer if that makes sense. Additionally, I have only noticed a slight warming with MGWT paper. With MGIV, I feel like the prints just look slightly mushy. I'd stick with PQ unless you're really itching to experiment.

Thanks, jmal. I've looked at two prints from the same negative developed in Multigrade, and PQ Universal respectively, and not noticed any mushiness, but I wasn't expecting any, so I might not have noticed it if it were very slight.
It is very helpful to read your evaluation of "not any significant difference " between PQ and Warmtone though. Thanks again.

Is anyone else familiar with these two?

Just to clarify, the mushiness was with Harman WT dev and MGIV paper. I have not seen any mushiness with PQ or MG dev on any paper. Hope I did not confuse things.

I tried PQ once in comparison with Neutol WA, on Ilford Mgd 4 Fibre, and found that the Neutol WA gave slightly deeper blacks and slightly more contrast. Not a definitive test, but enough to put me off PQ.

Alan Clark

I've used ID-72, which may be similar. It gives very good, warm tones with warmtone paper.

If you just can't get the Ilford paper, I'd expend some energy looking into toning.

It's not hard, and does give a unique look to a print. It also increases the archival qualities, if you use selenium.

nworth said:

I've used ID-72, which may be similar. It gives very good, warm tones with warmtone paper.

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ID-72 is the PQ variant of ID19/D19b and is probably more contrasty than PQ universal. ID-62 is closer, with no Benzotriazole & additional bromide it become ID-78 which is very similar to Neutol WA.

Ian