Re: Direct toner synonym

Judy Seigel (jseigel@panix.com)
Wed, 1 Nov 1995 21:18:03 -0500 (EST)

On Thu, 2 Nov 1995, Rosanne Stutts wrote:

> >>(Direct toner, meaning you just immerse the print in it without any
> >>pre-bleaching)
>
> Isn't that a dye?

No. If you put a photograph into a dye (as for fabric, or whatever), the
paper base is dyed (stained) with probably little or no change to the
color of the photograph.

A photographic toner is a chemical that unites with/changes/coats the
silver in the photograph -- the BLACK in factory paper -- to make it a
different color. Direct toners are mostly shades of brown, blue, green,
and red,though I think there is also a direct yellow (cadmium) & I daresay
a direct black. The most common are brown, and as I mentioned, frequently
though not always the browns are stinky sulphides. On the other hand,
they tend to be very beautiful, and permanent.

Oh wait a minute, I left out selenium, which can go quite purple,even
reddish, depending on the paper, if used strong. And gold toning*, for
rich people, which can be blue or bright red depending on the formula.

If done nicely and with good karma, with all these toners the paper base
stays white.

*Gold toning was quite popular when gold was $22 an ounce. I haven't done
it, but at one time there was a very popular formula -- Nelson Gold (is
that right, somebody?) which was relatively cheap because it had less
gold but enough to make prints archival.

Judy