Digital BW, The Print

Paul - Can you provide some additional details on why you stopped using Epson HP. Natural?  Thanks 


--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "Paul" <roark.paul@...> wrote:
>
> "Tom Fielder" <tfielder@> wrote:
> >
> >...if you print a solid "yellow" block, using the B& W inks, 
> > will the printer just fire the yellow nozzle?  
> > 
> 
> Yes it will.  (I disagree with Mike on this point.)
> 
> Likewise, in standard hextone type printers the Red and Green curves in the Photoshop adjustment curves map directly to the cyan and magenta positions of the printers, with the cross-overs between the light and dark inks being built in (and very good).  If the printer driver is set to "No Color Adjustment" the full ink limit, as set by the selection of paper type, will be utilized.  If "Color Controls" is set in the driver, some of the ink will be withheld.
> 
> With an inkset that is made to be compatible with the Epson driver, such as Eboni-6 on the 1400, the main reason to use the QTR rip as opposed to QTR's Create ICC-RGB is to be able to set the ink limits of the inks and to print black only.  Independent control of the ink limits is necessary for un-coated papers such as Arches HP, which takes a very high ink limit for the black ink and very low ink limits for the midtones.  With the Epson HP papers, there is even no longer any significant tonal advantage to black only.  I've stopped using it.  So, with Eboni-6, everything can be done with curves embedded in ICCs with Create ICC-RGB as long as you don't care about un-coated papers.
> 
> The non-hextone inksets present some different issues with some inksets, but work fine with monotones and the Epson driver.  For example, on the 1800, I was able to partition and profile Eboni-6 just fine with Epson driver.  Likewise the K2 and K3 printers work fine with the Epson driver.  The new 7900 types of printers would probably also work fine with Eboni-6, but not with Arches unless their drivers include K and midtone ink limit controls that are much better than the older drivers.
> 
> A rip is also needed to control variable tone inksets better on K3 printers.  The gray substitution interferes with the control of the C and M channels too much.  That is what undermined the UT-3D on K3 machines. 
> 
> But, bottom line, Eboni-6 and similar monotone inksets have a clear path forward on virtually all Epson printers as long as there are carts available.  The need for the rip to print Arches uncoated paper is the main reason I grabbed the 7800.  
> 
> Paul
> www.PaulRoark.com
>