Fotospeed Legacy Gloss 325 - Review; Images Maker, July 2019

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This is a heavy-weight premium grade paper intended as a sister to its matt sister Fotospeed Platinum Cotton. It is 100% cotton rag with a baryta-like coating intended to mimic the best of old-fashioned silver halide fibre-based papers without glazing. It has a natural white base and the coating is free of OBAs.

r FToh Ch teo N spew a s ee E e dp Lseo gna F cyin Gel A osrt s 3M 2e5d November 2013 Base Tone Baryta Data 8

Han PRagPearl 320

6

Han FA Pearl285 PJet FB Gloss 295 FotS DWPBWT FotS DWPB Neutral

4

Pjet FB Gloss 325 FujiHunt Baryte Harman GlossFBAl Han FA Baryta 325 Ilford Gallery Gold FB

2

Epson Trad PhotoPaper PjetFB WT Repeatability

-1

-0.5

0

D50

0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

Lumijet Photo White Pearl 260 Lumijet Natural White 260 FotS DWPB Neutral

-2

Fiba print White matte 280 Ultra Smooth Gloss 285 FibaPrint White Gloss300 Fibaprint White SemiMatte 300

-4

102

103 Jul 19

-6

Fotospeed Legacy Gloss 325

ia

Base Properties With a 325 gsm weight and a caliper of 440 microns – this is a fine art paper in every sense. The surface finish is a subtle textured pearl which lifts to a lovely sheen when ink has been applied. Prints in the hand have considerable presence.

The paper thickness required the use of the top manual feeder of our Epson 4900 but we encountered few issues with paper transport (just an occasional finger pressure to ensure take-up through the rollers). It is not the type of paper that you would multi-sheet load but large-scale users will gravitate towards rolls anyway. The paper was reasonably flat out of the box and remained so in the couple of weeks that the prints were left out on the bench.

Base Tone As expected, the lack of OBAs resulted in no response in the UV booth. The base tone was five points towards yellow and we went back to our historical data to find that this is the creamiest paper in the 25 barytas that we have tested to date. The 2013 data are appended with Legacy Gloss 325 for reference.

MEDIAN

ΔL/w

ΔC/w

ΔH/w

All 216

3.18

2.96

-0.25

0.71

-0.25

Fogra V3

4.08

3.76

0.65

1.11

-0.90

CC 24

2.53

2.55

-0.53

0.28

0.21

HiGAM

2.57

2.52

-1.72

-0.44

-0.73

The average error across all patches was 3.18 ∆Eoo and 2.53 ∆Eoo for the Macbeth CC24 patch set. The skin tone errors of the Macbeth SG target were 2.28∆Eoo but this comprised a 1.94∆H contribution from the warmth of the paper. Unusually the print values were higher up the Lab chart than the aim values (ie creamier), quite a rare finding in our testing and evidence of both the lack of OBAs and the warm base.

Skin Tones

2.28

2.64

-1.13

0.02

1.94

3.52

3.40

-0.38

3.17

0.26

Dmax

CII

Gamut Volume

The gamut volume was 960,000 which is high for this class of finish. The metamerism was low at 1.88 ∆Eoo (D65-A on 50% grey). The Dmax was an excellent 2.23 and the grey ramp tracked linearly down the scale to the 5% Lightness value. The shadows blocked at 20 RGB points and the highlights differentiated all the way up to 252 RGB points.

2.23

1.88

959,919

Tint

Fluorescence

Weighted Component Errors

Avg ΔE00

Whiteness

Statistics Patch Set

81.5

-1.68

2.8

We made a 727-patch profile target using Premium Semi-Gloss Photo Paper 250 as our media setting on our Epson 4900 and Maximum Quality settings. The ink was dry after a couple of minutes.

Greys

MMcN4900_FotoS_LegGloss325_727MaxQ#3_SDA.xlsx

As you might expect from such good data, the finished prints were excellent; the slight glossing produced by the ink highlighted the subtle amount of texture that is present in the coating. The detail retention was excellent.

Brightness

Colour Audit Testing

L

a

b

84.2

96.8

-0.14

5.54

HiGamut Colour Test Fotospeed Legacy Gloss 325 150

100

Grey Ramp Fotospeed Legacy Gloss 325

Measured Patch Lightness Lab

90 80

100

70 60 50

50

Lab b

40 30 20 10 0

H iGa mR ef H iGa m Pri nt

-100

0

20

40

60

80

-80

-60

-40

-20

0

0

20

40

60

80

100

100

Reference Lightness

-50

-100

Lab Plot Macbeth SG SKIN TONES Fotospeed Legacy Gloss 325

Lab a

40

35

Grey Tone Reproduction

Fotospeed Legacy Gloss 325 30 10

25 Lab b

8

20

SG Flesh Tones Ref

6

SG Flesh Tones print

15

Near Neutrals Ref

4

Near Neutrals Print

Lab b

10

2 SG Greys Ref

5

0 -10

0

-5

SG Greys Print 0

5

10

-2

10

20 Lab a

30

40 -4 -6

Lab a

103

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0

Fotospeed Legacy Gloss 325 Monochrome Testing We conducted our standard monochrome test using the Epson ABW driver set to Neutral/Dark. This delivered the 50% grey patch at 50.35% and so Dark is the correct setting for colormetric accuracy in monochrome printing this way. The print density was impressive, reaching a Dmax of 2.4 with a metamerism CII of 2.79.

Legacy Gloss makes an ideal monochrome media especially for producing a slightly warm ‘selenium tone’ like effect so loved by the purists. If you need a punchy ‘jump off the page’ sparkle to your prints Fotospeed can provide more suitable alternatives!

Overall The paper is available from A4 to A2 sheet sizes and in roll form at 17”, 24”, 36”, 44” and 60” (all 15m long). The guide price is £70 for 25-off A3 which works out at £2.80 per sheet.

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Overall this is an excellent media suited to any application where some warmth is preferred and a lack of OBAs a requirement. It has a weighty premium feel to it making it suitable for all fine art photographic applications and, as we have said earlier, the purist monochrome specialist with a penchant for ‘selenium tone-like’ finishes will love it! The detail retention and high Dmax make it a candidate for any high-end work. The clue is in the name; if you are harking back to the luxurious feel of fibre-based silver halide, this will get you there and some!

We made some ‘real’ prints (which are always likely to prove instructive).

While they looked as impressive as the statistics would suggest, a couple of transport issues raised their heads. The prints were slightly on the skew from the paper not loading accurately. It’s not a deal breaker but care needs to be taken with these weights of papers which are outside of the technical specs for the Epson 4900 cassette and must be used from the rear manual slot (which has a 750 micron thickness limit) but are sometimes difficult for the machine to keep in line – the paper certainly needed slight downward pressure to assist the grab rollers taking up the media, a process that can easily skew the paper. The issue will arise if the photographer is a little greedy on pushing the printed area very close to the margins – it can be false economy. It is one reason why roll media is a much better bet for high-volume producers. The skew amounted to 4mm down the length of an A3 print. We recognise that the issue is not specific to the media of this review, it is printer related.

Images: Carol Seager