Glossy or Matt?

McL · Apr 2, 2014

Greetings all! Im wish to embark on the lith trail, im looking at the best papers to use, consensus seems to be fomatone MG is the leader but I wonder which performs better for lith printing the glossy or the matte version?
I generally dislike glossy papers but I know brilliance is improved with glossy and I have read a few reports that some matte papers do not function as well with lith because they sometimes require hardening beforehand, is this true???
many thanks for any advice
Mark

WHof · Apr 15, 2014

It is likely your glossy or matt preference regarding traditional black & white prints would equally apply to lith prints. For me, one of the strong appeals of a lith print is its softness, which is kind of contradictory to a glossy paper. Which sort of sadly means, if I find a scene I know I will do in lith, there is no reason to capture it with a 4 x 5 negative or a medium format negative, but in 35 mm actually works to my advantage. However, you know the bottom line answer (to which Foma would certainly agree) - the only way for you to know for sure is to make the same image on both types of paper.

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Glossy or Matt?

McL

WHof