Which is sharper, RC or Fiber based paper?

I did a search on this and came up short. I had been printing on RC pearl for enlarger set up sake, but last night started printing Warmtone fiber gloss and noticed the finest of details were not as sharp, checked focus and even did a quick RC to verify.

It does not necessarilly look bad, but the RC is noticeably sharper upon close inspection. Anyone care to comment on this?

RC papers can appear sharper particularly glossy papers and this is most apparent when scanning images. However fibre based papers have a more natural feel because of the texture of the coated paper surface itself.

Ian

Which component of sharpness are you concentrating on?

Accutance, contrast or resolution.

As I expect you are aware, accutance tends to have the largest affect on perceived sharpness.

My guess is that the difference in surface texture is affecting your perception of accutance,

Even though it is pearl finish on the RC, I am pretty sure it is the flatness of the paper compared to the subtle peaks and valleys of Fiber that make it look different. The shot is on APX25 at 10 x 10, so there is no grain to speak of, just the finest of details. The contrast on the fiber is greater as are the depth of the tones, looks great. But even though the RC is looking flatter overall as one would expect, it is just rendering details a bit better than the glossy warm tone fiber based paper.

Obviously, despite the softer details, the warm tone fiber is the way to go...

MattKing said:

Which component of sharpness are you concentrating on?

Accutance, contrast or resolution.

As I expect you are aware, accutance tends to have the largest affect on perceived sharpness.

My guess is that the difference in surface texture is affecting your perception of accutance,

Click to expand...

So I feel a bit silly, when the paper is wet, it looks softer, sharpened up nice when dry, lol!

MattKing said:

Which component of sharpness are you concentrating on?

Accutance, contrast or resolution.

As I expect you are aware, accutance tends to have the largest affect on perceived sharpness.

My guess is that the difference in surface texture is affecting your perception of accutance,

Click to expand...

good question. contrst is oftn confused with sharpness.

FB is excellent, but I do a lot of RC because it is easier ( quicker).

Jeff

You can almost here the worms escaping the can...

I find RC to appear sharper when it's on pearl or gloss, but look exactly the same as fiber when compared matte to matte. The glossier versions of fiber paper somewhat get closer to RC...but honestly, I've never really cared that much unless I had a magnifying glass.