Colour paper that isn't flimsy - suggestions.

[tomalophicon]

I recently used some old AGFA Signum paper that has a nice thick base and feels almost like a double weight paper.
Is there any modern colour paper that has a thick base? The regular Fuji Crystal Archive is just so damn thin.
Thanks.
Tom.

[DREW WILEY]

Color has to be rolled the opposite direction on the master roll for you folks in the southern hemisphere. Really, I think Fuji switched papers to get a whiter base (an improvement in this respect). It's not hard to handle if you've ever had to handle polyester base material, which crinkles
way easier. What I did is make a sheet plastic sled that goes between my cutting table (or paper safe upon it) and the vacuum easel on my enlarger. It just clips in place with location tab I can
feel in the dark to remove it if necessary. Volume printers have cutters built into the process, which
are basically married to their Chromira or Lightjet printers, or adjacent to optical enlargers. I have a
big table with a 48" Rototrim cutter, then just pop the lip of the sled over the round cutter bars and
slide the paper onto the easel about another 4 ft away. The sides of the slide have been turned up
with basic heat gun bending, and any edges carefully smoothed too. It works great and didn't cost
much to make.

[tomalophicon]

Hi Drew, thanks for the reply. I've been buying in sheets but would have to cut my own for any other kind of paper.
My problem isn't handling but on that the skinniness of the paper is not as pleasing as a heavier paper.

[DREW WILEY]

There's a new brand of RA paper being distributed in this country. I haven't tried it. Plus plenty of
Kodak as well as older Type C Fuji still around. Sorry I can't say much about them. I'm going to
standardize on the new Type II just for the color improvement and alleged best permanence. I have
no idea what choices you've got down in Oz.

[tomalophicon]

Drew have you tried the type II yet? If so let me know how it goes.

[warrennn]

I measured the thickness of both type C and type II Fuji papers and they are exactly the same (about 0.010", if I remember right). The papers are nearly indistinguishable in most other ways as well (except for a very slight change in the green sensitivity which is easily compensated for).

Warren N

[tomalophicon]

Thanks Warren, that's very helpful.
Is there a Kodak paper that's thicker?

[OzJohn]

Is there a Kodak paper that's thicker?

I don't know how many colour papers Kodak still make but I have all my pro work printed on Endura and it has always, to my senses, been thicker than Fuji CA but I have not put a micrometer on it. Kodak used to have thinner photofinishing papers one of which was called Edge. Endura has a copyright notice printed diagonally on the back whereas the photofinishing papers generally had the turned edge Kodak paper logo.

You are right about Agfa Signum. Before I stopped printing colour in 2004, I used a couple of boxes of it on the recom of another photographer and liked it very much. It did appear to be a bit thicker than the others, had a much whiter base than the Kodak papers and a great colour palette. I probably would have kept using it had I kept printing but then I would have run into the issue of AgfaPhoto going belly-up in 2005! OzJohn

[tomalophicon]

Thanks OzJohn. I'm still on the lookout. Maybe I need to sample some.

Yes the AGFA paper is so great. It's very sad it's gone!

[warrennn]

I have a 300' roll of Kodak Edge paper and I measured its thickness: it is the same (~0.010") as the current Fuji type C and type II. I have heard that Edge paper has similar photographic properties as Endura, but have never tried the latter. I think that Endura is supposed to be thicker.

Warren N