Digital BW, The Print

Thanks, Paul.  I'll consider moving to the Workforce 30, as I don't 
print any larger than letter size.  I'll be somewhat inhibited, though, 
by the fact that I have 3 of the C88s in my "darkroom," two with EZ 
inksets (one w/CFS, one w/carts) and a third with Epson OEM color carts 
as an occasional color printer and a standby in case either of the B&W 
printers fails.  If past practice is a guide, I will make close to 500 
prints in the next 2 weeks, and I run both of the B&W C88s to do this.  
If one dies, I'll press the color printer into B&W service immediately.  
(Next year I've got to get organized, but I've been making these 
Christmas books for family members for close to 30 years now, and it 
always ends up as a mad push in the last 2 weeks - there were years when 
I spent early Christmas afternoon downtown at my law office binding the 
books that would be given out that evening.)

So a transition to another printer model would be something of a 
project, managing different inksets and presumably different settings 
depending on the printer to which a particular image will be sent, all 
over several years (unless I just pitched whatever C88s were still 
working when I made the switch.)  Still, the Workforce printers seem to 
be cheap enough that the printer costs would be pretty small, even if I 
started with 3 of 'em.  It looks like the cartridges and inks would run 
more than the printers.

One item that might make a difference - are the Workforce printers 
substantially faster than the C88s when doing images?  (I don't use 
these printers for documents, so their apparently stunning text speed is 
of no particular interest.)

I've printed off your article on the ink sets, and am trying to absorb 
the concept of profiles, something I've never dealt with before.  How 
critical would it be to get a spectro if I switched to the Workforce 
printers?  I use mostly Red River matte papers for my picture book 
printing - their Better quality, not Premium stuff.

Thanks for your continuing efforts with B&W inks, and for your advice on 
this particular situation I found myself in.

Cheers,
Kip

Paul wrote:
>  
>
>  < snip >
>
> The standard MIS EZ inks would work, but I think they're a get light. 
> I made profiles for an "EZ" type of setup that uses standard LK 
> density inks. I thought it printed better and would be a more flexible 
> setup. To avoid confusion, since last I looked MIS had not followed 
> that recommendation, I stopped using the "EZ" name for the LK-density 
> approach. The LK density single midtone approach I'm calling the 
> "K2-Quad" approach. It has 4 inks, 3 of which are the K2 Lk, so it is 
> a quad with 2 levels of K. (That will probably just cause more 
> confusion, but that is what I've moved to.) Hopefully the profiles 
> will be more portable.
>
> See http://www.paulroark.com/BW-Info/1100.pdf
>
> You can see at http://www.paulroark.com/BW-Info/ and 
> http://www.paulroark.com/BW-Info/Inkset-list.html links to various 
> permutations of this approach. The "sequential" curves seem very 
> portable. Linearization is usually needed for a different inkset, 
> printer, or paper, but these curves and this approach are rather generic.
>
> > ... or should I just stock up on a couple of more C88s ...
>
> No, I would move on when the C88 crashes. Printers keep getting 
> better. The WF line is a worthy successor.
>
> Paul
> www.PaulRoark.com
>
>
> 


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