Digital BW, The Print

David Keenan wrote:

> I'm looking for an expensive printer

I suspect you meant "inexpensive" printer.  

> to use in a part-time NYC apartment. I have two 3800's at home in Austin (one with Piezpgraphy inks) but having a simple setup while I'm in the Big Apple could be nice. Please tell more more about how this might work.


I think the Epson Workforce 1100 is similar to the C88 in that it is basically a quad (no light inks) printer.  What it adds is a second K channel for very fast text printing, and most importantly, it can take 13" paper.  I've never used one, but the C88+ line is one of the longest-lived series and, I believe, for a very good reason -- it's cheap, simple, easy to maintain and does the job quite well.  So, if the 1100 is, in effect, a 13" version of the C88, then it might be a good solution for those who don't want the hassle of dealing with 6 different inks.

How the C88 "EZ" B&W system works is that there is a single midtone ink that is put into all 3 midtone positions.  This means that there are only 2 inks to deal with.

To make things even easier -- like for my kids in college -- I use a cheap ($50) SuperJetUSA CIS.  This gives them enough ink to get through the entire year of college with never having to deal with a single ink change.

MIS makes (per my old design dating back to the C82) a neutral (blended carbon + color) midtone that can be used for glossy or matte, depending on the K used.  MIS also sells a "warm" EZ midtone.  This is the 100% carbon MIS ink that is glossy compatible.  It prints sepia on glossy papers.  For near neutral to medium warm matte printing, I recommend Eboni/Carbon-6.  I mix Carbon-6 with my C6b base and 13.5% Eboni MK.  (See http://www.paulroark.com/BW-Info/Ink-Mixing.pdf and http://www.paulroark.com/BW-Info/C88-C13-5.pdf)  MIS does not sell this blend directly, but the way one gets to it is to buy MIS Eboni-6 LC and M and mix the 2 bottles together.

With the Eboni/Carbon-6 blend my experience is that the midtones will virtually never clog.  The Eboni MK will clog to the same extent that most commercial ink do, but this is usually not a problem.  If one uses the Eb/C-6 option with a CIS, the CIS needs to be agitated periodically, but that is easy.

One could also set up a C88 or 1100 with a partitioned inkset.  This would be slightly smoother and might have the advantage for me that the 2% Eboni ink could be used heavily, making more neutral 100% carbon prints.  I have not tested this, but I suspect the delta-Lab-b with Epson Hot Press might be just slightly above 1 unit -- barely perceptible.

At any rate, I think the 1100 is an interesting option.  While it's true that we already have the 1400 for 13" paper, the larger drop of the 1100 combined with the 2% might print more neutrally.  The EZ approach would simply be easier.

Paul
www.PaulRoark.com