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Museo II |
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Museo II is made in the United States by Crane & Co., the worldwide leader in 100% cotton papers. Crane considers Museo II the world's finest acid free, double-sided, fine art inkjet paper. Available in two weights, the totally new Museo II is made from 100% cotton fibers (the purest source of cellulose), which are processed with micro-filtered, naturally occurring, Artesian well water. This fine art paper is also buffered with calcium carbonate to prevent environmental acidification (e.g. yellowing). All Museo II papers meet the demanding needs of the finest image makers, galleries and museums, plus Library of Congress and ISO standards for permanence (ISO 11108 requirements for permanence and durability for archival paper and ISO 9706 requirements for document permanence).
 Because no fluorescent brighteners are used (unlike other so-called "photo-rag" papers) long-term color and grayscale performance is outstanding. This means that Museo II is less subject to yellowing or other color shifts over time (a brightened paper or coating may look great today, but it will undoubtedly yellow or shift color over time - in fact, the Library of Congress defines an archival paper to be OBA-free). The lack of optical brighteners also means that this inkjet paper will not fluoresce in mixed light environments that may contain UV illumination. Crane claims this new line of paper to be superior to virtually every other cotton rag inkjet paper available worldwide, including the most premium, professional brands from Europe.
Although long-term stability is great, artists want to know how good images look on the new Crane Museo II. InkjetArt tests showed this paper to have exceptionally smooth gradients, a very wide color gamut, and a Dmax* of 1.66! Compare these maximum densities (all printed using Epson UltraChrome Matte Black ink in an Epson 2200 printer):
- 1.66 - Crane Museo II
- 1.63 - Epson Enhanced Matte
- 1.60 - Hahnemuhle Photo Rag
- 1.52 - Arches Infinity
Higher Dmax can be achieved with the use of dye inks, but long-term stability will be less than with pigment inks, i.e. the Epson UltraChrome, and new UltraChrome K3.
Crane Museo II Fine Art Paper has a brightness of 91, which is pretty amazing for a non-brightened paper. Although it is not quite as bright as Hahnemuhle Photo Rag (which did have the appearance of OGAs in our tests), and certainly not as bright as Epson's Enhanced Matte (which is heavily brightened), it was still brighter than Arches Infinity or Epson's UltraSmooth Fine Art Paper (both of which claim to be OBA-free). Crane claims that Museo II will produce the purest blacks and whitest whites of any available inkjet paper without optical brighteners. We think they have succeeded.
The two printable surfaces of this fine art paper are optimized for handling and to minimize particle flaking, abrasion and other physical damage. The "felt" side has a subtle Velina finish, and the "wire" side has a little more even, and slightly smoother surface - both of which are ideal for fine art photography images (but we personally liked the felt side best, because of the character of the Velina texture).
*For comparison purposes, let it be known that a Dmax densitometer reading of "1.60" is twice as dark as a reading of "1.50" (in other words, if you took a reflective light meter reading off of a 1.60 "black" patch, it would show a reading of one full "F" stop less reflected light coming off of it than a 1.50 "black" patch).
Click here for ICC Printer Profiles |
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