On test
Statistics
The paper has a slightly cool measured-white-point but in most light and certainly from a slightly oblique angle it looks creamy. There are no OBAs, the media is quite dead in the UV booth and the fluoresce is extremely low. The parameters for Whiteness, Brightness and the Lab Luminance are all low in value but give a false witness to the way the printed image looks, which is quite sparky! The colour audit statistics are therefore a bit worse than the print in hand would suggest. When we tested the generically similar Tecco Iridium Silver paper (which is NOT the same beast, but an obvious cousin) we said we would return to sorting out the statistics, so buckle up and hang on!
Weighted Component Errors
Patch Set
Avg ΔE00
MEDIAN
ΔL/w
ΔC/w
ΔH/w
All 216
5.42
5.49
-4.62
-0.75
-0.20
Fogra V3
4.16
4.47
-3.61
0.15
0.08
CC 24
5.74
6.05
-4.94
-0.91
-0.86
HiGAM
6.44
6.58
-5.81
-2.00
-0.52
Skin Tones
6.82
7.45
-5.86
-2.64
-2.14
Greys
6.00
6.13
-4.78
2.94
1.13
Gamut Volume
2.13
1.62
1,123,146
Tint
Fluorescence
88.8
1.76
0.9
Brightness
CII
Whiteness
MMcN4900Pk_PJetTitanium_PGPP250MaxQ#1_SDA.xlsx Dmax
L
a
b
79.9
89.3
0.2
-3.79
HiGamut Colour Test
150
Yellow Green
-7.44 100
7.9 Yellow
10.2 -9.74
Lime-Green
6.27 -5.8 Forest Green 6.45 -5.99
Lab b
-7.54 7.99
Orange
50
Red
-6.75 8.04 HiGamRef HiGam Print
Green Turquoise 0 -100
-80
-60
-40
6.58 -6.04
-20
0
20
40
60
Magenta
80
100
7.11 -6.18
5.04 -4.61 Turquoise
Purple
10.31 Cyan -9.96
-50
2.53 Cyan-Blue -2.45
T
his paper had a somewhat sensational launch at Focus on Imaging when PermaJet sold all their stock on the first day and indeed have only just caught up with the backlog!
It is a silver metallic lustre finish which is impossible to show on a magazine page but is extremely attractive, most especially on the right kind of image. This immediately poses the question, 'Which is the right kind of image?' A number of choices spring to mind. Anything with metal or glass such as cars, jewellery or glassware are good starting points. HDR images which have been post processed for that typical HDR, highcontrast, low-saturation slightly metallic look (think Richie Walton!!) will
professional
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undoubtedly be enhanced. 'Fantasy' shots of sport such as those used by Nike and Heineken will come up a treat. Modern fashion will come up well. Does this leave any room for traditional imagery? Monochrome would benefit from the added sparkle but if we go back to where it all started, it was the wedding album people who pioneered the use of silver halide metallic finishes in their wedding albums and so this is an obvious area for exploration – we are probably talking 20- to 35-yearolds here, not your parents on their second time around the block!
This is most accurately shown by the graph of overall error versus lightness error component for just the HiGAM colours; it is an almost perfect straight line which means that the lightness the almost exclusively the bad actor in all this. Aside from the error in lightness the colours are rather accurate.
2.33 Blue -0.96
-100 Lab a
Delta dE*
Delta dL*/w
Total Error - Lightness Component
0 0
2
4
6
8
10
12
-2
Weighted Lightness Error ∆L/w
The Lab luminance of the base paper is only 90%. Many of the colours in the test patches have aim points of up to 95% luminance. The printer now has the dual task of making colour (by laying ink down – thus darkening the print) but cannot even start to improve on the low luminance. So despite the fact that the gamut of Titanium is the second highest that we have ever measured, the HiGAM colours show reduced saturation and deeper tone values as the profile struggles to optimise both colour and tone level.
2.94 -2.12
-4
-6
-8
-10
-12 Total Error ∆Eoo
In summary then the paper has lots of uses but pushes towards the modern and shiny!
PAPERCHASE: Part 46
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PermaJet Titanium Lustre All this discussion puts a slightly bad light on this media which is not true in practical print viewing terms despite the stats. It's a good, attractive paper, you just need to understand what is going on – the test as always is to make prints and we can assure you that you are going to love them! The other parts of the testing were up to standard. The Granger Chart was smooth other than a slight imperfection in the mid-range greens. The metamerism was very low at 1.62 CII. The Dmax was 2.13. The shadows differentiated down to 20RGB points, the highlights up to 251 points. The only other comment is that the lustre surface is reasonably robust to marking. A finger nail will create a scratch but it is not as sensitive as the high gloss materials where even paper to paper contact leaving the printer can be an issue. Wedding photographers have always liked metallic finishes for their albums and so Titanium should find favour there also.
Monochrome As part of the tests we measured the monochrome performance. The media lived up to its billing with a very attractive monochrome off the Epson ABW driver. We used ABW 'Dark' which created a mid-tone grey at 46.4%, so a setting of Normal would be colormetrically perfect. The grey ramp extended deeper into the blacks with a Dmax of 2.57 (very high). The ramp is plotted on the 'all-colour' curve and shows identical characteristics in all but the shadow tail. We have superimposed the ramp data for Ilford Smooth Pearl as an example of a 'conventional' surface. These are the blue diamonds in the graph – note how the highlights are above those of the Titanium. Note also that the ABW curve (green triangles) runs deeper than the 'all-colour' version of the Titanium print. The mono print was almost neutral in colour, just a few points blue to match the base white. The metamerism rose slightly to 2.45 CII (∆Eoo D65 to Tungsten A at 50% grey). In the absence of any colour to attract the eye, the silver effect seems to be even further enhanced, it was certainly a distinctive-looking print, we liked it a lot.
Grey Ramp 100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 0
20 Titanium
40
60
Ilford Smooth Pearl
80
100
ABW Dark PLPP Neutral
"…it was certainly a distinctive-looking print…" PRICES SIZE
£24.95
A3
25
£49.95
A2
25
£99.95
17" Roll
25m
£119.95
24" Roll
25m
£169.95
42" Roll
25m
£279.95
professional professional
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INC VAT
25
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PACK
A4
CONCLUSIONS Overall there is much to admire about Titanium, it is not for every use but it certainly gives quite a lift to an appropriate image and it looks like it will be a winner if current sales are anything to go by. The only application we would be a bit wary of would be nature photography prints. This is a rather conservative genre, but you might just start a trend!
PAPERCHASE: Part 46