> I'm not sure if by 'glazing' you mean put behind glass? If so, are you > talking about putting the glass flush to the print's surface? I didn't > think that would be a good thing. nope, it's also known as ferrotyping where the image is squeegee'd to a chrome plated brass sheet or glass of a very high polish (NO scratches, no matter how fine) and the print takes on the perfectly flat, extreme high gloss finish of the ferrotyping plate. > I examined three papers under a loupe. Epson gloss, semi matte, and > matte. The matte had obvious texture that really broke up small > details in the image, not good. The semi matte had basically the same > detail and gamut as the glossy, but without the extreme reflections > upon it. Of course the gloss has what many people think of as a > quality look, that which a shiny new car has too. I myself prefer more > of an 'artsy' look. In fact the semi matter is a compromise between > shiny and matte. It also doesn't show fingerprints, and I really like > it. I just wish I could get large lab prints here in semi gloss. ah - personal preference has a lot to do with what looks good to our eye :-) > The Japanese have always been in love with gloss and still are. I > remember when Canadian photofinishers went from the old times of gloss > to satin, then semi gloss and now full circle back to gloss. At least > you usually get a choice of gloss or semi matter. fads and trends come and go, I have a sampler here of some of ilfords past range - scary stuff! dozens of hideous textures and surfaces.. I have to say I can oly ever print on gloss, semi-gloss and matte. Plain stuff, very conservative. > If you've ever examined an old satin finish print under a loupe, it's > a very strange surface that really loses all fine detail. And if > you've ever tried copying a satin print you find that it looks like > crap. Thank goodness the satin period was short. that's largely due to the process of projecting the image onto the paper - irregular surfaces scatter the light, lowering the probability of a sharp image, so gloss takes an image well, even matte (which is often very flat) takes images well too, but semi-gloss surfaces which are shiny and irregular really much up sharpness.. I wonder if inkjet printers have this smae problem? karl
