Soft proof: Selenium K7 on JonCone Studio Type 4

Soft proof: Selenium K7 on JonCone Studio Type 5

Soft proof: Selenium K7 on JonCone Studio Type 2

Piezography Selenium is one of Jon Cone's favorite ink sets. His professor at Ohio University was Arnold Gassan. Arnold wrote one of the definitive text books on the history of Photography. His text books are still highly sought after: A Chronology of Photography; The Color Print Book; Handbook for Contemporary Photography.

Gassan encouraged Cone to study the chemistry of photography. Although his tutelage was difficult (at best), his insistence that Cone make his own chemistry, fully understand the zone system, and become a skilled practitioner of the darkroom was very influential in Cone's later work as a development printmaker. Arnold was very ill in his later life, suffering from terminal cancer. Cone began helping Gassan to sort out some digital workflow to ready his last archives. Cone eventually asked Gassan to provide the definitive short-bath Selenium toned print on his favorite Ilford fiber based paper. That print was used for the *ab values to formulate Selenium K7 inks.

As for its final color in glossy printing, on JonCone Studio Type 4 paper it's very reminiscent of Ilford fiber based... maybe even a dead ringer. Probably hard to get any more replicant than this combination. Not to ring the bell to loud, but this may be the best possible replacement for the actual short bath, selenium-toned, fiber based silver print.

On JonCone Studio Type 5, the warmth of the paper brings that warm Agfa paper back into the picture. This ink is our number one selling ink because it is so representative of darkroom printing.

This ink set is designed to be used with the Piezography media profiles and QuadTone RIP. Please see the Instructions tab for a full explanation of its use.

You can expect to reach a dMax of 1.65 on matte papers such as JonCone Studio Type2 and Hahnemuhle Photo Rag. When glossy printing according to our directions you can reach dMax levels as high as 2.80. Piezography Glossy produces a finish in which you will not be able to tell where the inks end and the paper begins. When used as directed, it produces a uniform surface without any gloss differential nor bronzing.