Digital BW, The Print

Hi Paul,

  I have just read your updated write-up's and I am amazed by your endurance in researching new ink solutions.

I noticed that in your latest clear base formula you gave up on propylene glycol (which, as far as I remember, was present in the past). I could never make a decent base for Eboni out of it as the carbon pigments where settling at a very fast rate (matter of a couple of days, just by gravity). Since you were using it in your mix, I thought I was wrong somewhere, so I kept experimenting for another little while. But I had no luck and I totally abandoned it shortly after. I am glad you recently did the same.


In you Ink-Mixing write-up, I have appreciated the special consideration you reserved to Arches Watercolor paper. I believe, Clayton Jones also mentioned in a recent thread. As many know by now, I use almost exclusively uncoated fine art paper and Arches is among the three I like the best. In my honest opinion, when an image is nice and rich in content, there is no need to chase the ultimate D-max in order to attract the eye. 
Not long ago, I had an exhibit here, in Southern Italy, showing in the same gallery, some prints of my portfolio made on Arches Watercolor, Magnani Pescia, Moab Entrada and Carbon-Gelatine prints (the latter having a D-max above 1.9). Even when shown side-by-side the effect of different D-max was pretty much irrelevant and the lower density of  Magnani Pescia (dmax 1.47-1.51, depending on the batch) was more than made up by the beauty of the paper surface (it's a printmaking paper rather than watercolor).
Of course, when dealing with uncoated paper, the preparation of the file to send to the printer must be different than with inkjet paper and one has to pay more attention to global and local contrast that needs to be properly enhanced. I believe that, very often, the very reason why someone get very attracted by a particular paper is because the curves and the contrast he used when editing the file were more appropriate than with other papers. This issue is even more important with fine art papers which respond very differently to the same  curve/contrast. 

One last thing. Regarding the tone of diluted Eboni on Arches you  are obtaining (Carbon-Print-Tones.pdf), they are quite different from my observations. In fact, your Lab-B goes above about 5 in the interval between steps 7 and 13 (from what I can discern from the graph on page 3) while, in my case, that happens in the range of steps 3-7. 

Speaking of tones, one reason why I like so much Magnani Pescia is because of the uniformity of the tones with diluted Eboni: Lab-B ranges between 2.5 and 3.6 everywhere except the two lightest and darkest patches.

Thanks. Ciao,

  Mantinieri

http://www.mantinieri.com


--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "Paul" <roark.paul@...> wrote:
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> --- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "lenwk" <lenwk@> wrote:
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> > I've read Paul Roark's fine documentation on mixing the clear dilution base for making a set of inks for my R2400.  I believe my next step would be to understand the proportions of base and eboni MK ink to mix for each cartridge.  If so, where might I find some instructions?
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> The ink mixing PDF -- http://www.paulroark.com/BW-Info/Ink-Mixing.pdf -- links to the Carbon-6 PDF -- http://www.paulroark.com/BW-Info/Carbon-6.pdf  You'll find the mixing ratios on page 2.  The specific gravity of Eboni and the base are the same, so it doesn't matter whether you use weight or volume.
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> Good luck.
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> Paul
> www.PaulRoark.com
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