geo@... wrote:
...got a venerate Epson 10000CF. ...
...
What I am thinking about is starting off with Paul's Eb6 configuration, ...
I have never worked with an Epson 10000. However, that printer model seems to often be grouped with the 7500, which I had and ran Eboni-6 in. The 10000 seems to be more modern in some respects. For example, it appears to have a variable drop with a drop size down to 5 pl, which is a little smaller than the 7500.
There are some individuals in this list who have used the 10000, so questions about the printer are something they'll know much more about than I.
In general, I believe Eboni-6 will run on virtually any Epson inkjet printer, and the general Eboni-6 PDF should apply. See http://www.paulroark.com/BW-Info/Eboni-6.pdf
Unfortunately my 7500-Eboni-6.PDF seems to have been lost in my consolidating much of the Eboni-6 materials into the current Eboni-6 PDF. The Eboni-6 PDF that is most recently updated is the one for the 7800, which I currently use. I print the vast majority of my carbon prints on this printer now. See http://www.paulroark.com/BW-Info/7800-EbHP-2013.pdf
With my 7500, the relatively larger drops were a mixed bag. Eboni-6 is more neutral with some papers. On coated matte papers the 7500 usually printed quite well. I still have a large panorama on my wall that was done with that printer, Eboni-6, and Premier Art Smooth BW paper, and it that holds up very well on close inspection. I was actually able to make truly cold tone prints with that paper, Eb6 and the 7500. The Lab B stayed negative through the entire image range.
However, the 7500 did not print as smoothly as I'd like on Arches watercolor paper. (If you do not have a rip, the Epson driver is unlikely to be able to deliver enough ink to get a good dmax on Arches anyway.)
I hope the 10000 has better carts than the 7500. The main negative issue I had with the 7500 was that the carts did not have the modern Epson coupling that allowed them to be reliably removed for agitation and re-inserted without leaking. The 7500 carts just used a rubber plug on the cart and a fairly sharp tap on the printer. Eboni-6 should be agitated somewhat more than one would do with standard Epson inks.
For what they are worth, I put my old photoshop curves for Eboni-6 and the 7500 here: http://www.paulroark.com/BW-Info/7500-Eboni-6.zip
These can give you an idea of how I partitioned the inks using PS and the Epson driver. I particularly liked, at one point, the use of QTR's Create ICC-RGB to make ICCs that could control the driver/inks.
The use of ICCs has become harder with Adobe and the OS people trying to control or dumb down color management. So, whether your setup would allow easy use of this workflow may depend on your software. One nice thing about the Create ICC-RGB approach is that it had a linearization step that allowed one to make a less than perfect PS curve.
In the "old days," I could use an ICC with the driver set to Color Controls. This is not allowed by modern software. I don't know whether the old curves in my Zip file used that setting or not.
If no ICC is used, the Epson driver set to Color Controls with gamma 2.2 usually prints rather well. I';m not sure if it'll be smooth enough with the 10000, but it's an easy way to start.
At any rate, good luck with the 10000 and Eb6. It ought to work fine. The carts and whether they can be reliably pulled for agitation is something I'd look into.
Paul