Paper Types

There are a variety of paper types that can be used for black and white printing. Paper is available in different contrast grades and surface finishes that can produce a wide range of effects. Two common types of surface are glossy and matt where the gloss finish produces a sharper looking image with richer blacks than a matt surface.

A convenient type of paper to use is resin coated and when in its multigrade form can be used with different filters. The paper has a thin plastic layer on both sides of the paper which minimises chemical penetration. Due to this surface finish preventing liquid soaking in, the paper can be exposed and developed quickly. It can also be dried rapidly in a heated dryer. But resin coated paper is considered not to have the quality of a paper such as fibre based and the permanence of the image is not always guaranteed.

Fibre based paper is a more traditional type of paper which is made from a highly refined wood pulp base and does not have a plastic coating so therefore is more absorbent. This does mean that the processing and washing time is greater than for resin coated paper. In order to reduce the washing time a wash aid can be used for convenience. Fibre based paper cannot be dried in a heated dryer due to its textural nature and must be air dried. The paper generally does not dry flat and therefore must be flattened using a heavy weight. Despite requiring greater time to produce a print, the benefits of the paper is the higher quality due to the richer range in tones and the higher standard of permanence that has yet to be achieved with resin coated prints.

Both resin coated and fibre based paper can come in a multigrade form where it can be used with all contrast Grade filters or the paper can be specifically graded (in the range of Grade 0 – 5) where a contrast filter does not need to be used.

There are a large number of manufacturers that produce a range of papers for printing black and white photos. During this module, I have used Ilford Mulitgrade IV RC (resin coated) and Ilford Multigrade IV FB (Fibre based).