PRESS ROOM STORY
HARMAN PHOTO RANGE RATED HIGHLY IN FOCUS POLL
14th August 2007
HARMAN PHOTO RANGE RATED HIGHLY IN FOCUS POLL
The new range of HARMAN PHOTO photographic inkjet papers has been rated very highly by photographers attending the Focus on Imaging exhibition this February. Amongst the glowing statistics, 85 percent of the hundreds of photographers questioned in the survey said that on the strength of their own testing, they intend to purchase the HARMAN PHOTO product in the future.
Howard Hopwood, marketing director at HARMAN technology commented:
“The response to the HARMAN PHOTO papers at Focus was exceptionally positive, and the survey of those who took away a sample pack for testing has proven that there is a high demand for a premium quality photographic inkjet range.”
“We established the HARMAN PHOTO products to fill a hole we strongly believed existed for a high-end inkjet product with a genuine photographic heritage and development background. The survey results prove this is the case, and hopefully signal a bright future for the range.” He added.
74 percent of the respondents had already tested the product, and of those respondents, 76 percent rated the overall ‘feel’ of the paper as ‘Very Good’ or ‘Excellent’; something the manufacturer puts down to the Baryta layer incorporated in the papers.
Howard Hopwood continued:
“The Baryta layer helps to recreate the ‘feel’ and essence of a traditional photographic print, creating a smooth surface. We use the same Baryta coated base for our ILFORD MULTIGRADE darkroom papers, so the inkjet papers are effectively a hybrid between the traditional and digital photographic processes.”
“The 310gsm weight also helps in this regard,” he continued, “but the feel of the product isn’t the only facet that the Baryta enhances; it will have also fuelled the high scores we received in terms of overall quality of prints, and the sharpness of the printed images.”
Over 75 percent of those that had tested the paper said that the overall sharpness of images printed on the HARMAN PHOTO MATT FB Mp paper was ‘Very Good’ or ‘Excellent’. 66 percent said that the paper was ‘Very Good’ or ‘Excellent’ in terms of ease of use – which was another primary concern for HARMAN’s development team.
Howard Hopwood explained:
“Before we began development of the HARMAN PHOTO range, one of our frustrations with existing premium prducts was their tendency to curl both before and after printing.”
“As such, we invested in unique technology that ensures our product lies completely flat before, during and after printing. Primarily, this makes the media very usable during the printing process, but it also helps when finishing, mounting and presenting the print.”
More generic information to emerge from the survey includes the fact that a large majority of photographers use A4 sheets most regularly, whilst only 6.5 percent use rolls of inkjet media.
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CAPTION: The HARMAN PHOTO range gets an extremely positive feedback from Focus visitors.
For more information on this story, please contact Nev Ridley or Fiona Shackleton at Manifest Communications on 01484 469601, or email fiona@manifestcomms.co.uk