Luis Nadeau (nadeaul@nbnet.nb.ca)
Sun, 03 Jan 1999 22:44:08 -0400
>Judy Seigel wrote:
>
>I read somewhere that the most beautiful monochrome photo reproduction
>is with CMYK. I know that when I find one that looks especially luscious
>and am able to look at it with a loupe, there is that "rosette" of 3 or
>maybe 4 colors...
You may have read this in some of my books... and it is probably true when
attempting facsimile reproductions of fine or historical prints (the
albumen look, etc.)
However, I have over 400 reproduction processes (photo/photomechanical &
printing technologies -short list avail. through my site below) in my
collection, which I have been studying carefully in recent months for an
upcoming book on the identification of prints. The prints are examined
side-by-side with the naked eye, and with a variety of loupes, and
microscopes under different lighting conditions. The finest monochrome
process is probably the very first commercially available rotogravure
(i.e., screened) process, by the Rembrandt Intaglio Co., of Lancaster, UK
(introd. in 1895). Strangely enough, I don't know of any commercial printer
using this process with the same level of quality today. Rembrandt Gravures
were for the "éditions de luxe" (to use a British expression), often on
thick, 200 to 240 gram stock, complete with a fake platemark.
A close second would be the French Goupil Gravure process, which ceased
operation ca. 1920.
The most impressive contemporary work might be the Swiss (screenless)
Granolitho process, followed by various tritones and quadratones. These
processes use modern, smooth offset papers. They can be beautiful.
I remember having lunch with one of the Zoom directors in Paris in the
70's, telling me that decent monochrome reproduction was more expensive
than 4-color printing... Their monochrome work never approached the quality
of Rembrandt Gravures though.
Luis Nadeau
NADEAUL@NBNET.NB.CA
Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada
http://www3.nbnet.nb.ca/nadeaul/
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