I think you're right.
And above every level is another. For example, the carbon is probably not made by the ink companies like STS, but they probably grind it. For a nice overview of some of the processes and facts about carbon, see, for example,
What we fight a lot is that the pipeline to us is long, with many levels and many inputs that are not going to be the same for very long. Yet what we do includes aspects that are sensitive to changes in the variables, including in inks and papers. Some of the differences people see in profile approach relates to efforts to minimize the impact of variables. That is also a major reason for my testing what I call the "Carbon Variable Tone" inkset and its dual MK inks. Consider what a long, no-cross-over MK channel in a 1.5 pl printer does. (See the early draft write up of the CVT inkset at http://www.paulroark.com/BW-Info/Carbon-Variable-Tone.pdf) My next major effort will be to see if that approach can be scaled to the 7800 and other typical 3.5 pl printers.
Paul
On Tue, Dec 2, 2014 at 9:59 AM, michael3442@... [DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint] <DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com> wrote:
Paul, a few days ago I looked over STS's website and could not find any indication that they actually manufacture their own ink. Their home page says they are the world's largest distributor of filled ink cartridges and inks for wide format printers (or some such language). And it says their founder is responsible for many ink cartridge developments. Perhaps they're buying Image Specialists so they can also be a manufacturer of inks. Further, maybe the ink they had been distributing was IS inks. Just trying to unravel some of the mystery surrounding ink manufacturing/distributing. ;-)