Agfa Rapidoprint

I recently bought an unopened box of Agfa RapidoPrint paper. From my research is was primarily used by newsrooms to make fast prints from a special machine for developing it. It is supposed to contain developer in the emulsion to speed along the development. I was intrigued by an unopened box of 100 sheet of 11x14" paper. Some online comments encouraged me as they said it was possible to develop it normally.

Watermark

The paper is single weight and I successfully developed it in Ilford Universal PQ. All good things start with a test strip.

RapidPrint Test Strip f11 

There is a little movement in the test strip hence the double image. 45 seconds looks about right. The print came out with good contrast, glossy and a very cool almost blue tone. Being single weight it is difficult to flatten. The emulsion is crispy when bent across a small radius.

Round Church Cambridge f11 45 sec

 I did another print as well...

Sandpoint Stump

Next I thought I would see if it would lith well. Having an incorporated developer I decided I would try washing the paper first and comparing to an unwashed paper. Since I don't want wet paper in my easel :) I washed the paper in water after exposure.

For the overexposure I used examples above and reset the aperture to f4.5 (wide open for my enlarger lens) and did 60 and 120 second exposures for about 3 -4 stops over-exposed. I also ran the lith developer at a high temperature to speed development.

pre-wash f4.5 120 sec EasyLith high temp

A good result light brown to orange tone. Next without a wash.

No pre-wash f4.5 120 sec EasyLith high temp

There doesn't seem to be much difference between washing and not washing. It is difficult to tell as lith is so subject to the snatch point. Here is a 60 second exposure.

No pre-wash f4.5 60 sec EasyLith high temp