Digital BW, The Print

"david627890" <david.whistance@...> wrote:
>
> I am thinking of implementing a warm carbon set along the lines of the one you mentioned in a recent post - Eboni, LK, LLK, but still have some unused bottles of the U2R2 warm inks left from use in an R220.  Can you tell me whether these two inks are essentially the same as the LK and LLK inks or are they of different densities?  Is there a table anywhere showing the densities of the inks in the various MIS B&W specific inksets?


The R2 warm inks are denser than LK and LLK.

Here is the outline of MIS carbon ink densities:

The basic dark ink to light ink dilution is 30% (that is, 30% darker ink, 70% clear base).

Since we started originally with only matte papers, the original carbon midtones were, essentially, the same as a 30% dilution of K and then another 30% down to the light midtone.  These are usually called by me UT-C (30% MK density) and UT-LC (30% UT-C)

Then Epson and others went to glossy inks with PK, LK, and LLK, again using the 30% formula for the most part.  PK, however, is a lower load ink than MK.  So, LK and LLK are lighter than the UT-C and UT-LC.

The order from most dense down is as follows:

MK, PK, UT-C (includes R2 warm C and M), LK, (UT-EZ warm), UT-LC (includes R2 warm LC, LM, and Y), and LLK.

In the Eboni-6 family, you can get an idea of the relative densities by looking at the dilutions:

Eb6-K = 100% Eboni MK

(PK is not in the Eboni family.  However, in my 7800 I use it as the substitute for Eb6-C and also overlap it into the Eboni at the 100% point to kick up the dmax on Arches uncoated.)

Eb6-C = 30% Eboni (about like UT-C, less dense than PK)

Eb6-M = 18% Eboni (about equal to LK density)

Eb6-EZ = 13.5% Eboni (Not an official MIS ink, but what I have recommended and used for C88 EZ setups.  It's M and LC poured together.)

Eb6-LC = 9% Eboni (about like UT-LC)

Eb6-LM = 6% Eboni (about like LLK density)

Eb6-Y = 2% Eboni  (MIS has no glossy 100% carbon that is like this.)


The dilution does not directly and linearly correspond to the print density because one gets decreasing print density increases per unit of carbon added.  Similarly, for any given ink dilution, the more that is put on the paper does not increase density in a linear fashion, and these non-linear ink load to print density curves are not congruent.  So, when I say one ink has a density similar to another, that may be at only one ink load point.  So, the above outline is approximate.

Hope this helps.

Paul
www.PaulRoark.com