Digital BW, The Print

Two things arrived today -- the Noritsu Magenta cart and the Epson WorkForce 30.

As expected, the Noritsu M in a draw down test looks just like the Claria M.  Actually there is a slight difference.  While the Lab L and A are identical to 2 digits, the Lab B of my Claria sample (rather old) is about 1.5 units higher than that of the Noritsu.  I think they are just different batches of the same thing.

The WorkForce 30 is a cheap and very fast printer destined for a college student.  I don't recommend it for serious printing with this dye inkset.  However, the single midtone ink made with 16% (87% Noritsu K, 13% Claria M) and 84% clear base prints very nicely toned glossy prints on more than half of the papers I've tested.  The bad news for glossy printing is that the glossy paper types in the driver have rather weak dmaxs -- 1.6 - 1.7.  If the matte paper types are used the ink load is a bit too high, causing some roughness in the midtones and blocking of the shadows, which can be fixed with an appropriate ICC (and embedded curve).  But, the ink limits of the driver are clearly not what we'd want for serious printing.

On UPPM (EEM) the Lab A and B are virtually flat across the density range.  The bad news for UPPM/EEM is that the dmax is a bit weak.  H. Photo Rag is a bit green with a huge 1.9 dmas.  Red River Premium Matte is just about perfect, with a 1.8+ dmax.

So, it's a cheap, fast printer that might be great with the Durabrite inks, but it's not a good printer for these dyes.  I'll use it for a long term test anyway, since it's intended as a text printer.

Paul
www.PaulRoark.com