One of  the newest fine art papers released of late,  Concorde Rag from Dygraphics  has been winning compliments from those who have tried it. It's rated as an archival paper and has been tested to last for 150 years with Roland pigmented inks. More on its archival qualities can be read at Stock Solutions' Concorde Rag page (Stock solution also supplies this paper).  I first got wind of this paper from "CampfireDan" Culbertson who posted to the Leben list on his success with Concorde Rag (read it here). This is a short preliminary look at this paper which I managed to try with Epson inks and MIS's Archival Inks.

Some basic links to the relevant sites:-

• Dygraphics- you can get Concorde Rag from this site
• Concorde Rag product information
• Other suppliers of the Concorde Rag- Stock Solution & MIS Associates
• MIS Associates
• MIS Archival Inks Page

Impressions

1Color of paper This paper is very yellow. Sdmey4@aol.com best describes it as a "cream yellow warm tint".
2Surface and Texture Absolutely matte with  slight texture. The base color of this paper will surely have an impact on the colors printed but because it is of a warm nature, it sets off most printouts quite well (depending on what the image is actually). I like it a lot! Previously I only had experience using Saunders watercolour paper which has great warm texture that is almost 'canvass' like and prints great too. Concorde Rag is more refined that the Saunders watercolour paper that I used. Those looking to replace the Epson Photo Paper or any other variety of the glossy papers out there need to look for something else since this paper is very matte. This paper is correctly classified as a fine art paper. The matte surface may not matter so much if you plan to put the print behind glass or laminate it. For those who need some reference to Epson media for comparison, I would say that Concorde Rag 'looks' the most likethe EPson Photo quality Inkjet Card with the difference of having surface color (the Epson  Photo qualit inkjet card is very white) and slight texture;
3No trace of Pizza Wheel Tracks Being a textured fine art paper, there are no pizza wheel tracks.. Generally speaking, most matte type paper do not have the pizza wheel tracks. 
4Water resistance This paper has fantastic water resistance. I let the printout with Epson inks on Concorde Rag sit under running tap water and there was no observable change to the printout except that it got really wet. In short, the colours did not run at all. Then I rubbed the printout in water a bit and still no running but depending on how hard you rub, some ink does scrap off. After the print out had dried, I couldn't ell it was soaking wet at one point ..no stains. MIS Archival inks on this paper also had this high degree of  water resistance.
 

Criteria

I used Jack Fouquette's (paper review) criteria (with some amendments) for evaluating paper when I looked at the printouts I had produced :-

FINDINGS

PRINTING WITH EPSON INKS
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Color	Generally - Great! Very impressive and compares very favourably to Epson's own Photo Quality Inkjet card/paper. The base colour of this paper may not be suitable for some applications as it invariably affects the way colour looks on this paper. Saturation:- very saturated and deep. I did a comparison test print with the Epson photo quality inkjet card which gives great results but can be somewhat 'tame' in teerms of vibrancy. The Concord Rag appeared to give color which is deeper (eg blacks look a tad deeper, reds look redder etc). I need to do more testing to be absolutely sure. Settings I found that Glossy Film Setting gave best detail but using this setting had two effects:- 1Color differences  Use of the Glossy Film setting resulted in printouts which had a distinct colorshift. For lack of better phrasing, I would say that the colors I got using Glossy Film setting were somewhat "tamer" (even after I used Royce's tip for incresing color intensity) or less warm as compared to the printout using Photo Paper setting.  The Photo Paper setting gave some bleeding but had a warmer and 'brighter' overall look. 2Contrast The printout with Photo Paper setting had noticeably better contrast and looked more cheerful (brighter?) I suspect because more of the warm base colour of the Concorde Rag can be seen. It's not that using Glossy Film setting gave bad results (on the contrary, the printout looked very good), but it still looked less 'snappy' compared to the one done with Photo Paper setting. Black Blacks turn out very deep. ............................................................
Detail	There is some bleeding is evident especially with the Photo Quality Inkjet Paper Setting which lays down more ink than say the Photo Paper option. With Photo Paper setting, the bleeding is minimal and very acceptable. Glossy Film setting is the best, absolutely no bleeding. Overall, I would say that detail is very good. I printed using a 5x8 size and found the resulting image very pleasing and sharp if not for the occasional bleeding in about 2-5% of the print on Photo Paper setting.Have a look at the following scan of a printout done with Glossy Film setting. The approximate width of the scan below is 1.5 cm. The words GretagMacbeth can be seen. <<<Concorde Rag with Epson Inks using Glossy Film Settings>>>   ............................................................
Buildup	There is no observable build-up. Blacks print very deep.  ............................................................
Grain/Banding	No banding or microbanding. Very little observable grain as well. Dots probably bleed a little to blend well with each other. This is to me one of the more important pluses of using Concorde Rag. ............................................................

Now let's have a look at Concord Rag with MIS Archival Inks:-

PRINTING WITH MIS ARCHIVAL INKS
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Color	Generally - Generally, the printouts with MIS inks on this paper tended towards blue B&W  Grays also turn out with obvious green cast as it did when I used EPson Photo Paper (mentioned above). Black Very deep blacks. ............................................................
Detail	Just have a look at the following:- Clearly bleeding is a problem. I used Glossy Film settings to reduce the amount of ink going into the Concorde Rag but bleeding is still evident. Dan Culbertson has reported great results with the Concord Rag and MIS archival inks used in his Stylus 3000 (4 colour printer) and he suggested that perhaps the profile he used (which is a canned Stylus 3000 profile) was a good match for the Concorde Rag.. The words on the printout can't be made out at all except for "Kodak Color Control ". <<<Concorde Rag with MIS Archival inks>>> ............................................................
Buildup	There is no observable build-up. Blacks print very deep.  ............................................................
Grain/Banding	I observed some 'mottling' or "sogginess"  that with the printout. Looks like too much ink is laid down on the paper. I tried using the Glossy FIlm setting but that only remedied the effect a little. Banding: -no observable banding or microbanding. In the scan below, you can see abit of the 'mottling' especially in the darker areas:- <<<Concorde Rag with MIS Archival inks - b&w>>> ............................................................

Conclusions

To summarise, the good points about the Concorde Rag with  Epson Inks and MIS Archival inks are (on a 6 colour Photo EX).:-

Highs
1. No banding;
2. no pizza track wheels;
3. With Epson Inks:good detail, almost on par with Epson photo quality inkjet card. I did not get the results I would be happy with using the MIS inks and I am pretty sure this is because of the settings I used. More on this later.;
4. deep and rich colors

Lows
1.    bleeding in some settings;
2.    buff, cream base color may not be suitable for certain applications.

Just Wondering?

Would Concorde Rag used with Epson inks be considered an archival quality printout?

You Gotta See this!

Check out Dan Culberson's fantastic scans showing the differences between Somerset and Concorde Rag using MIS's Quadtone inks:-

• MistyPond-w-Channels Source
• MistyPondConcordeRag.jpg  Concorde Rag
• MistyPondSommersetVelvet.jpg  S-Velvet
• SteveandLaura-w-channels.jpg Source
• SteveandLauraConcordeRag.jpg  Concorde Rag
• SteveLauraSommersetVelvet.jpg  SVelvet
• Vixen-w-channels.jpg  Source
• VixenConcordeRag.jpg  Concorde Rag
• VixenSommersetVelvet.jpg  S-Velvet