Digital BW, The Print

As I ponder my B&W printing plans for the coming year, which may vary from day to day, I wonder where others see the market going.


I anticipate staying with 100% carbon for my fine art work.  At the moment I'm probably going to stay with Eboni and MIS glossy carbon in the 7800, switching the order, however, to fit more with MIS's (and my) normal ink positions: Eboni-6 in the Y, LM, M, LC, and K spots; and MIS K4 LLK, LK, and (K = Eboni).  These are all in their normal or default positions.  MIS PK will be in the C position.  

While I will not be able to support all positions of a full Eboni-6 installation in a K3 printer, I will be able to make the basic QTR profiles that use 5 of the Eboni inks in their usual positions.  I will also be able to support an "Eboni-4" k3 installation, and I think a "dual quad" ink setup in a K3 printer makes a lot of sense for many.  Eboni-4 or -5 QTR profiles made for the 7800 probably just need re-linearization for other k3 printers.   

While I was at one time thinking of moving the MIS glossy carbon out of the 7800, the demand for the old photo reproductions printed in "sepia" (MIS glossy carbon on Museo Silver Rag) is too great to ignore.  It's been a very successful program for the local museum and for me; so I've agreed to continue to do their printing for the foreseeable future.  I've seen no microbanding from just using 3 glossy carbons in the 7800.  As such, I currently plan to stay with only 3 glossy carbons.

I'm still hunting for the best glossy neutral, but I'm not sure any of the pigments excite me enough to move the large printer in that direction.  HP, and to a lesser extent Canon, both are showing some green shift on glossy papers in some of the latest Aardenburg-Imaging (http://www.aardenburg-imaging.com/) fade tests.  See, for example,  this comparison of the HP and Canon B&W results on gloss papers: http://www.paulroark.com/BW-Info/Canon-v-HP.JPG  (Note that the papers were different.)  

By the way, please be sure to continue or expand your donations to Aardenburg-Imaging even though the fade tests are now available free to non-members.  It's an enormously valuable database to the industry.  Just hit the PayPal button at the top of http://www.aardenburg-imaging.com/ 

I'll be experimenting with an Epson R3000 in coming months, using OEM inks.  Realistically, the OEMs, and particularly Epson, have taken most of the market for B&W.  While I'll always be experimenting with alternative approaches, I do want to keep track of where the main market is.  I'll be curious what experimenting with the OEM setup produces.  In theory I think RGB and ABW workflows should merge.  If (a big IF) their gray substitution algorithms are good enough there should be no difference.  That is part of what I'll be experimenting with.  

The most "fun" inkset I've come up with recently is the B&W dyes. (http://www.paulroark.com/BW-Info/BW-Dye.pdf) I have the WorkForce 30 set up with the easiest, single-gray setup, and the cards it's producing are very good.  (See http://www.paulroark.com/BW-Info/WF30-BW-Dye.pdf)  

While a Claria native printer like the 1400 or the smaller ones would be ideal for the full hextone inkset, the WF 30 is cheaper and simpler.  The WF 30 is also less prone to banding due to paper transport issues, which can affect the 1400 near the edges of the cards and when the pre-scored bump hits a roller.  I will probably buy a WF 40 next due to its smaller, 2 pl drop.  I'll try to find some way to make the midtone ink available to others without mixing. Until Epson comes out with a K3 Claria printer, there is a big gap in the market here.  I will probably start selling the cards made with these inks through my usual gallery (http://gallerylosolivos.com/).

The 1400 will probably migrate back to full Eboni-6, so I'll support the 1400 and 1100 as the main desktop units with that inkset, which continues to be the top choice, in my view, for the most lighfast (and cheapest) fine art quality B&W prints.

FWIW ...


Paul
www.PaulRoark.com