Digital BW, The Print

"Michael" <michael3442@...> wrote:
>
> Regarding the 1.5 picoliter heads. I believe the specification says something like "minimum ink droplet size" of 1.5 picoliters. To me this means the head puts down variable size dots with the smallest being 1.5 picoliters. 

I believe that is the case, but I don't know what the median size would be.

> ... And how much does this matter at normal viewing distances? 

I've always felt that the 1.5 pl printers are the only ones that can make what I consider "photo quality" prints with black only printing.  Of course what one can tolerate varies.  

With the Eboni black only, the results can be  too rough for me in certain photos with clear skies.  Here the dots of the printer and the grain of the photo seem to multiply.  This may be related to aliasing as discussed in another thread lately.  I don't know. But with Eboni and the 1400, I often will blend the black only profile with an Eboni-6 profile to compromise the smoothness of Eboni-6 with the neutrality of the Eboni black only.

With glossy papers and HP PK, I have not run into the roughness problem.  That could be just because of the particular images I print with that approach or the fact that the PK is simply smoother.

At any rate, I've never been satisfied with a 3.5 pl printer and black only printing.

Paul
www.PaulRoark.com