Thanks to my good friends at Epson America, I've got a few sheets of their new ColorLife paper. This is, in Epson's words, "made with a newly designed swellable polymer ink receptive coating that will give unprotected prints excellent resistance to atmospheric contaminants." It is supposed to be far more resistant to gas fading (orange shift) than any of Epson's current papers. It is now available from Buy.com, and maybe from other locations. You can read what Epson has to say about it in this press release.
Coincidently, Ilford Corporation has just announced a new paper, called Ilford Gallerie Classic Pearl, and they were kind enough to send me some to test. Coincidently, this is ALSO a polymer paper. No word about it being "swellable", but Ilford says it "will not sufffer from gas fading. It also will not show coalescence or bronzing, which were the main complaints with [Ilford's] current desktop papers. There have been other various improvements too, to give images made on it a longer life." The obvious question: Are these the same paper?
In the interests of science I am, of course, going to subject these papers to my ozone torture tests. No orange shift results to report yet, but as soon as I have good information I'll start posting it here. In the meantime, I've made prints on both these papers, and also on Epson Premium Luster, Premium Semi-Gloss and Premium Glossy.
Paper comparison: In my preliminary comments on the mailing lists, I said this I thought the ColorLife paper was less "grainy" than Epson's Luster paper. Well, upon direct comparison, I was wrong. The surface texture is virtually identical. The Color Life paper is very slightly whiter than Premium Luster, but not much. Personally, I have very mixed feelings about this surface. When light is reflecting off the paper into my eyes, I detest the quality of the reflection. But with the light at any other angle, it really does look very nice.
The Ilford Gallerie Pearl is very similar to the ColorLife. But it's not quite as white, and texture is just a little bit less prominent. But I do mean a little: you have to compare them side by side, and look very closely to notice the difference.
All in all, I'd prefer either a smoother, or a less shiny, surface. Or both. If it really does adress the orange shift problem, I hope Epson offers other surfaces (I'm looking for a true gloss, Epson.... And a smooth finished (non-textured) semi-gloss would be nice, too. Hint, hint.) Ilford has told me their paper will be available in a glossy finish around the end of the year.
Given a choice, I prefer Epson's Semi-Gloss to the Luster, ColorLife or Classic Pearl, and PGPP to any of them. But if the new polymer papers don't shift, I could live with them.
Paper handling: In thickness and feel, the ColorLife is pretty much the same as the other Epson papers tested. Nicely weighted, and with no logo on the back (whether production paper will be the same is anyone's guess). The Ilford feels just a tad thinner, I think, but not much. It also has no logo.
There is, however, one huge difference between both new papers and the other Epson papers. ColorLife and Gallerie are NOT instant dry papers. They leave the printer feeling very soft and tacky. Rubbing my thumb on the fresh print didn't leave any ink on my finger, but it did smudge the print. And the smudges are still noticeable as I write this, 24 hours later. Even an hour after printing it still felt a bit soft, but after 24 hours it's fine. The Ilford was not quite as easily smudged as the Epson, but you definitely need to handle both papers with care when they are wet.
Note: Epson sent me no printing instructions with this paper. I've since learned that Epson recommends the Photo Quality Glossy Film setting, and not the PGPP setting I used. When printed using PQGF as the media type, the paper receives quite a bit less ink, and does dry much more quickly. It can still smudge when wet, but it takes a more deliberate effort. I'd still recommend being careful for the first hour or so, but it's not as fragile as I first thought.
Color Accuracy: I made prints of the same file on all these papers. All were printed on a 1270 using the original (not newly repackaged) Epson inks. All prints were made with the Epson driver set to PGPP media type. Now that the paper is available, I know that Epson recommends the Photo Quality Glossy Film setting. I've retested with this setting, and have comments for both, below.
Using the PGPP setting, the image on ColorLife paper is very noticeably cooler than the same image printed on any of the other Epson papers. Viewed on it's own, without comparing it to the other prints, it looks ok, for the most part. The gray scale in the Royce Bair test chart appears neutral, and the PDI target seems ok. The background of the Adobe image does, however, appear a bit bluish/purple, rather than gray.
Using the PQGF setting, the color balance changes very little. It's a slight bit less cool, but only slightly.
And the Ilford Pearl? It looks all but identical to the ColorLife. I don't think I've ever compared any two papers that were as much alike. The Epson paper may be very slightly more saturated, but the difference is incredibly small.
Compared to any of the other prints, however, the coolness is obvious. The background of the PDI target looks yellow on the other papers compared to the polymer papers. The faces in the PDI target and the Adobe image are much warmer on the older papers. And the background drape in the Adobe image has almost a slightly greenish tint on PGPP and Luster paper by comparison. (blue and yellow make green, right?) The polymer papers are too cool for my taste, but I've always felt that PGPP (and Luster) are just a bit too warm. A compromise somewhere between would be nice, but it shouldn't be too hard to warm the output a bit. And maybe a different media type setting would help.
On this note, however, I would like to strongly urge Epson to issue a revised driver that includes specific settings for this paper. Epson's practice of releasing paper after paper, but never providing driver settings matched to those papers, is intolerable. In many ways Epson works very hard to satisfy the professional artist / photographer, but this practice is truly bush league.
The most neutral of the 4, by the way, is the semi-gloss. Not quite as warm as the Luster and PGPP, but not nearly as cool as the ColorLife. The background of the Adobe shot appears gray, not green or blue.
Color Saturation: Using the same settings as for the other prints, the image on the two polymer papers printed a little bit darker. The circuit board in the top left of the PDI target has noticeably less detail on the new papers, as do other dark objects. This may be why color saturation seems higher on the ColorLife and Gallerie than on the other three papers. The difference isn't huge, and it should be easy enough to compensate for, but it's there.
Image quality: To the naked eye, they both appear essentially the same as the Luster (ignoring, for the moment, the color difference). I detect no difference in sharpness (but then the paper texture would obscure a lot of differences, anyway). Under a loupe, the ColorLife may actually show slightly (very slightly) more detail than the Ilford or Luster papers. I see the difference in the lace to the left of the sunflower, for example. The PGPP is superior to either, but at normal viewing distances you'd never be able to tell the difference.
Water Fastness: Clearly, there's no free lunch. It looks like, if we want gas-fastness, we're going to have to give up something else. Not only does this paper dry very slowly, but it's far from waterproof. At least one user has reported that this paper, if held under running water within about 24 hours after printing, will allow the ink to run right off. After 10 days, it's not that bad, but the ink will run if held under a running faucet.
Orange Shift Results: Finally! Preliminary results, at least. After 10 days in the ozone chamber, the difference between the new "polymer" papers are showing greatly different traits than current Epson papers. After 10 days, the older Epson "Premium" papers show dramatic orange shift. The Colorlife paper hasn't shifted at all! Ten days isn't proof that it's wont shift, but it certainly seems to justify the vendors claims of improved "gasfastness." I'm going to put both new papers back in test, and check them out in a couple of more weeks.
Take a look at a comparison of the ColorLife paper and other Epson papers after 10 days in the ozone chamber.
And here's a comparison of the ColorLife paper and the Ilford Gallerie paper, also after 10 days under test.