Over 99.5% of all the photographs produced today are produced on Resin-Coated paper. A high cotton-content paper is first coated with a plastic resin. Then, a light-sensitive emulsion is placed on top of one side. After the paper is exposed to the image under an enlarger, the paper goes through a four-stage wet developing process: develop, stop-develop, fix, and wash. The cotton fibers underneath the resin coating remain dry throughout the entire process.
Fiber-based papers lack the resin coating, which sparks off the much-heated debate, "Which one is better?" Without the resin coating, the light-sensitive emulsion becomes saturated in the cotton fibers and gives the image on the paper more depth. When placed side by side with resin-coated papers, fiber-based papers produce a richer image under identical development.
In preparation of fiber-based paper, development time is doubled to allow the developer to activate the deeply-embedded light-sensitive emulsion. Fixing time is usually doubled, and requires a double-fix bath and depletes the fixer bath about five times faster. Washing time needed to remove the fixer increases by a factor of ten. Archival agents need to be introduced during the wash to remove the fixer from the cotton fibers.
When fiber-based paper is allowed to dry in the open air, the emulsion side will dry at a different rate than the opposing side. Single-weight papers will curl into a tight scroll and become hopelessly disfigured. Double-weight papers will scroll significantly less, but become hopelessly rippled and will never lie flat.
Fiber-based papers can be dried with a special dryer. A drum dryer uses a curved, stainless steel plate with a removable canvas cover. The wet print is sandwiched between the steel plate and the canvas while heat is applied. A precise amount of heat and timing is required for this method. I prefer to slightly dry the prints overnight, then apply pressure with the weight of a heavy sheet of glass. The drying process continues for several days until all the water has evaporated while holding the print as flat as possible.
To mount a photograph onto a piece of mat board, linen tape is used to hold the print corners down. Whenever possible, I use special corners which hold the print in place without allowing any adhesive to come in contact with the print. These unsightly corners must be hidden underneath a covering over-mat. Since the size of each print will vary slightly, the over-mat must be custom-ordered hand cut to the size of the print.
A debate rages on about the archival properties of resin-coated versus fiber-based papers. The debate is not easily resolved, since archival times are measured in hundreds of years. Over the course of centuries (hundreds of years), it has been claimed that the plastic resin emits a corrosive gas which will degrade or destroy the emulsion. The opposing side debates that resins produced in modern photographic papers will not emit this gas. (A similar debate rages on about the archival properties of Compact Discs.) However, by eliminating the resin coating completely in fiber-based papers, the cotton fibers can be saturated with trace amounts of fixer chemicals, which, if present, will degrade the image much quicker than plastic resin gases.
Fiber-based papers have been used as a status symbol among photographers to justify themselves as "artists" as opposed to "shutterbugs." Photography as a work of art has been steadily loosing ground with the introduction of computerized camera equipment and 20-minute photo labs. Producing a photograph on fiber-based paper is akin to hand-painting on a canvas (and often takes as long).
The turn-around time for a fiber-based print is longer and the price is more expensive. All the photographs I hang on my own wall are Resin Protected, but I offer Fiber an option. You will be very satisfied with either.