Hi,
I study our perception of sharpness and how it relates to photographic
terms. Doing that I try to compare the resolution abilities at several
subsequent photographic stages and would like to know if anybody can
tell me something about the resolution limit of photographic printing
paper (lp/mm). - I´ve already searched the web but manufacturers like
Kodak, Fuji or Ilford do not state anything about it in their technical
dokumentation.
Thanks for your input!
Tim Allen
Nicholas O. Lindan - 03 Jan 2007 14:17 GMT
> resolution limit of photographic printing paper (lp/mm)
It depends on the surface: glossy; pearl; matte; textured.
The paper: resin coated; fiber base;
And how it is dried: ferrotyped (FB); or air dried (FB + RC)
But, for practical purposes, not an issue.
Examined under a 30x microscope pearl finish RC and air-dry
fiber glossy paper show sharply delineated dust motes.
Mote feature size is ~0.02mm.
My WAG is greater than 100 lp/mm.
The old glossy textured papers - sort of very fine grain
car-dashboard texture - looked to have less resolution
because of the distortions of the texture.
Matte papers also appear to have less resolution but
the effect may be due to lower paper contrast.
Any paper effect will by psycho-optical: surface finish,
lighting, glass over the print, AR coatings, blood
pressure, blood sugar, fatigue, jostling crowd, subject
matter, myopia, astigmatism, sheer bloody mindedness ...

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Nicholas O. Lindan, Cleveland, Ohio
Darkroom Automation: F-Stop Timers, Enlarging Meters
http://www.nolindan.com/da/index.htm
n o lindan at ix dot netcom dot com
Jean-David Beyer - 03 Jan 2007 16:16 GMT
> Hi,
>
[quoted text clipped - 5 lines]
> Kodak, Fuji or Ilford do not state anything about it in their technical
> dokumentation.
It should be pretty high, since its speed is low compared with most films.
In photo paper, you would need around 10 line-pairs per millimeter to exceed
that of the human eye, but I imagine the paper is better than that. It would
depend on the surface, the contrast, etc., of course.

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gr - 13 Jan 2007 20:57 GMT
> Hi,
>
[quoted text clipped - 8 lines]
> Thanks for your input!
> Tim Allen
Where I work (www.appliedimage.com) we make resolution charts and
other precision patterns. We like to limit the pattern to 18 or 20 c/mm
(on white reflective photo paper) because visual degradation below this
becomes apparent. You can get some sort of image down to about 50 c/mm
but the contrast is very low.
gr