Paper Chase - Olmec Papers

Olmec is a brand name for papers manufactured by ICI. With a long-standing expertise in both coatings and plastics it is not surprising that they developed ink-jet media quite early on in the market cycle.

There are nine variants available in sheet form and the more popular types are available in roll form. Of the nine, three are swellable polymer coatings suitable only for dye-based inks. These take longer to dry, are generally less fade-resistant and can also suffer from lateral dye migration as discussed in Paper Chase some time ago. For this reason we have listed the swellable polymer papers and their basic characteristics but would only recommend the use of dyes for photographic proofing purposes. Of the remaining, pigment compatible media, we tested on a variety of printers including the Epson 950, 2400, 4800 and 7600. Olmec provide profiles for a huge range of printers of all makes, visit www.ici-imagedata.com for a full listing.

310gsm Photo Quality Fine Art Ink-jet Paper

This is a heavy weight, acid free paper intended for fine art reproduction (and of course, fine art wall portraiture). It has a relatively smooth “hand-made paper2 look and feel and is almost pure neutral, just Olmec shading towards cream. There was no evidence of any OBA activity either in the uv-booth or from the spectral trace of the bas e tone. We made a number of bespoke profiles on various XRite and GretagMacbeth equipment and also tried the free profile provide as a download by Olmec.

As with all matte papers on an art texture, it is easy to clog up the shadows. We did not achieve the Dmax quoted in the specification (see table), however the results were in line with previous findings on heavy art papers.

The overall accuracy of the colour was impeded by the low Dmax and so the bulk of the errors occurred in the lightness component. The Olmec profile from the website produced a slight blue bias in an otherwise good print. The average error was 7.9 Lab ÄE/4.0ÄE2000 across the Macbeth chart. Although we produced a more neutral print by bespoke profiling we did not significantly affect the over all error statistics.

270gsm Heavyweight Semi-gloss Double-Sided

This is a silk-finish, resin-coated paper with a slightly cool base-tone from a moderate loading of OBAs. It produced a clean, bright image of good saturation and a Dmax of 1.98.

The colour data were good. The average error across the Macbeth chart was 4.2 Lab ÄE/ 2.79ÄE2000 with low errors in the skin tones (0.8 and 1.6 for dark flesh and light flesh respectively). Overall the skin tones were slightly desaturated and rotated slightly towards yellow, but nothing that would justify making corrections for even the most critical user.

We also tested this paper on the Epson 4800 using Olmec’s own profiles. Despite some uncertainty about the exact settings to employ we obtained a good-looking print with an average error of 7.1 ÄE Lab/4.2ÄE2000. The greys were neutral and mapped to the base tone. The lighter skin tones were desaturated by about 10% and slightly too blue. The greyscale was quite open in the shadows down to 10 RGB points, a tone density shift which elevated the errors in the data but without producing a serious visual problem. Overall this was a good-looking print with low metamerism (1.2ÄE Lab), a high Dmax of 2.2 and a good greyscale. The double-sided nature of the paper opens a number of possibilities for short-run promotional material where a very high-grade finish is needed and the cost can be justified.

260gsm Heavyweight Satin Single-Sided

Although the finish is similar to the 270gsm Heavyweight Semi-gloss, this is a cooler paper, with a Olmec heavier OBA loading. Using the same 4800 profile as the Semi-gloss test produced more desaturation and a higher blue bias (see graph) with average errors of 7.7Lab ÄE/4.46ÄE2000. Skin tone desaturation was higher than the semi-gloss, although still around 10%, but there was a 5° rotation towards red. The Dmax was higher at 2.25 and the metamerism was a very low 0.6 Lab points.

olmec We also tested this paper on the Epson 950 printer. Use of the Olmec profile produced a very poor result with a massively dark print. However bespoke profiling improved matters greatly, reducing the error to 4.8Lab ÄE/ 3.02ÄE2000.The flesh-tone colour errors were very good indeed on this combination but the shadows were drifted towards green and slightly posterised. Some profile optimisation would have been beneficial but we ran out of paper!

The surface finish was more defined than the Semi-gloss, some would feel that it had more character. Overall, though a very nice paper indeed.

260gsm Heavyweight Gloss paper

This is a resin-coated paper with a Microporous coating and a moderate amount of OBA to both cool and brighten the surface. It is not one of the “mirror” glosses with a slightly duller surface, which is not in any way unpleasant. olmec

On test, using the Epson 4800 (PK) and the Olmec profile, we obtained a really excellent print with good colour statistics. The average error across the Macbeth chart was 6.8Lab ÄE/ 3.92ÄE2000, very good for a generic profile. The grey tone scale was excellent with very good highlight separation right up to full white and shadow detail that only blocked up below 10 RGB points. As with the other papers in the range the skin tones were desaturated (by about 8%) and were rotated towards red by 2–3° as the profile mapped the colours into the cool base-tone. The Dmax was 2.26, the highest of the papers tested and the metameric index from the K3 ink was 1.3 Lab points.

230gsm Heavyweight Matt Single-Sided

This is a bright white, single-sided matte paper with a high loading of OBAs. We tested using the Olmec profile and got a rather disappointing result, especially after the good ones achieved with other Olmec profiles. We profiled using X-Rite Pulse and re-ran the colour audit. This bespoke profiling clawed back some of the lost saturation but only by a couple of per cent. It also trued up the hue values of the skin tones slightly. The overall Macbeth swatch error was reduced from 11.4 to 9.0 Lab ÄE but the ÄE2000 average was identical. All of this infers that it was a limitation of the paper that we were looking at, an effect we have seen before, the non-premium matte papers under-perform in comparison to the premium papers – that is what you pay for!

The metamerism of this paper and the K3 ink combination was low in both cases at 0.2 Lab points. The Dmax was 1.29 for the Olmec profile (at 1440dpi) and 1.37 for the bespoke profile (at 2880dpi).

Overall this is about on par for the type of paper it is. It would be usable as a proofing paper to show clients but is not sufficiently accurate to give good colour proofs for reproduction/press proofing. olmec

CONCLUSIONS

This is a sound range of materials with a better than average set of canned profiles, for a wide range of printer options. As usual we obtained better results with a bespoke profile and the colour statistics were in line with previous findings on these types of surfaces. You can therefore make your choices on the basis of cost, availablilty and whether you like the look and feel of the surfaces. Phone any of the suppliers (right) for prices or visit the GMB Digital website www.gmbdigital.co.uk.

Photo Quote: Photography can never grow up if it imitates some other medium. It has to walk alone; it has to be itself. - Berenice Abbott American Photographer, 1898-1991