Judy Seigel (jseigel@panix.com)
Tue, 30 Mar 1999 21:46:31 -0500 (EST)
On Tue, 30 Mar 1999, jewelia wrote:
> generally--as far as i know--dyes are not used as opitical brightners in
> paper--one reason being is that it is tough to dye something lighter than
> what it already is--two methods are used to whiten pulp--bleaching of some
> sort and optical brightners--almost all nice bright "white" papers are made
> from bleached fibers and this process can cause some archival and
> environmental concerns...optical brightener is a term used for additives
> sometimes used to whiten a bleached pulp (usually) more and, perhaps moreso,
> to increase the opacity of the paper...the usual optical brightner is
=============
Some years ago, more than I care to recount, I bought a product called
"Optical Brightener," or like that, a litre of liquid you were supposed to
soak your print in to make it very -- bright !. I always assumed it was
the same stuff they put in the paper at the factory, or something like.
So it sat, maybe opened once, on the shelf in the darkroom, unused, and
getting emptier and emptier -- clearly it was evaporating into my air.
After maybe 10 years of this, I noticed that the plastic container was
about 3/4 empty (yes, we prefer glass) & threw out the remainder. I gather
from your remarks that this product did NOT make a great hit on the
market.... Was it Edwal? Sprint? I don't remember. But I assumed that
was what was meant in the original message. And for better or worse, one
way or another, may be still around..
The Pictorialists, on the other hand, went to great pains to cast an
allover tone on their prints.... there are formulas for pale mixes of gum
to give a "golden glow." Not to mention a number of dandy papers (eg.
Rives Heavyweight) with a strong color cast...
cheers,
Judy
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