A Baryta Inkjet Paper Comparison

Ilford Galerie Gold Fibre Silk, a baryta-coated inkjet paper, filled a niche as one of the brightest and whitest papers in its class.  I have made some measurements to compare the following three papers:

• Ilford Galerie Gold Fibre Silk (formerly available from B&H Photo, no longer available);
• Arista-II Baryta Photo (formerly the house brand of Freestyle Photographic Supplies, no longer available);
• Simply Elegant Gold Fiber, still available from IT Supplies.

Being a “store brand” kind of person myself, my goal was to test the hypothesis that these three brands are all the same paper.

They are all 310gsm weight baryta-coated papers.

Observation

The papers appear identical in color (warm white), finish (semi-gloss with a very very fine texure), and feel (stiff, like very thin cardboard; hardly any tendency for the sheets to curl; the Ilford roll paper has a fixed curl to it).

Spectrophotometer measurements

Each paper’s reflectance was measured using Argyll CMS spotread and an i1Pro spectrophotometer with UV cut.

The Lab values (average of 20 meaurements):

The spectral reflectance value plots (selected from several):

The blacklight test

Below are pieces of all three papers on a background of Canon Fine Art Natural, which has no optical brightening agents; above them is a piece of Canon Satin Photo 240gsm, which is loaded with them.  It appears that the baryta papers may all have the same small amount of OBAˆs:

Profiling

The papers were profiled with the i1Pro and i1Publish by X-Rite, 1280 patches.

The three superimposed profile gamuts (they are identical):

   

The same image printed on each paper, all using the Ilford profile, and the Ilford media configuration:

Are these three labels the same paper?  You decide . . . .