Digital BW, The Print

At 11:35 PM 3/11/2002 -0800, you wrote:
>Well the B&W inkjet world is even broader with the availability of the MIS
Sepia-VM set. This set is not listed on their website but can be ordered in
4 oz or larger bottles if you call them. I purchased a 4 oz. set and loaded
them into virgin cartridges. I currently have it my 2nd 1280 and did some
13x19 and 11x17 prints on EAM and Photo Rag today using a variety of Paul's
and Tyler's curves for the standard MIS VM and some combinations.
>
>This is a very interesting set and the differences achieved by applying
different curves seem much stronger than with the regular VM. This set is
most interesting at the extreme ends with maximum toner or minimum toner
where the standard set is most often used with the middle curves. On the
1280 I was able to get a modest sepia tone with the vmp8-c14 curve. I have
seen Paul's prints from an 1160 and he was able to get a much stronger sepia
tone. Perhaps with the older "cc" curve from last summer I could get a
better sepia effect.
>
>With the warm, vmp8-w21 curve applied, the print looked exactly like MIS
Neutral FS as far as I can tell. A very slightly cool neutral.
>
>With the neutral cool, vmp8-nc16 curve I got print that fell in between
warm and light sepia. This was my least favorite.
>
>With the medium warm vmp8-mw16 curve I got a print that was very smooth
tonally and considerably warmer than anything I have seen with regular MIS
VM, regular MIS FS or Piezo inks. If you like warm tone prints this would
seem to be the ink set to go with.
>
>For my own taste, only the print with the vmp8-mw16 curve is something I
might use occasionally. All of the other effects are nice but are not the
direction I personally want to go. They will be heaven for many others though.
>
>Next I tried some combination layers of a "medium warm" curve over a "warm"
(actually neutral with these inks) and set the "medium warm" upper layer's
opacity to 50% and then 25%. Now these are looking like my selenium toned
silver! This is in line with Paul's earlier post about adding some of the
toner to the black to warm up the ink set and damp down the slight blue tint
of the grays.
>
>The one difficulty here for me is that the VM curves for the 6 ink printers
are not so smooth in the extreme positions, especially the warm. The curves
have to become too radical to overcome the Epson driver crossovers for the
photo cyan and photo magenta position inks. Gentler curves like the "neutral
cool" and "medium warm" are very smooth and I would like to be printing this
new VM ink with curves in that range.
>
>So with that in mind, I am considering mixing up some Sepia-VM with a
smaller gamut approach for the 1280. Give up a full sepia tone in exchange
for more subtle control near the "neutral" point of the ink set. Maybe
reduce the yellow and magenta to 1/3 or 1/4 the current amounts.
>
>Paul, in the past you were mixing inks by measuring them with syringes but
I recall you mentioned you had switched to an electronic balance. Do your
earlier formulas where you specified it as "x parts of a to y parts of b"
translate from volume to weight directly? What make and model are you using?
>
>Back in November you were looking at the Sepia-VM and posted this formula:
>
>"The sepia toner formula is 4 parts Yellow pigs (the newer, much more
>fade-resistant version sold by MIS as "FS yellow"), 2 parts magenta pigs, 3
>parts MIS "25" and 3  parts MIS clear base."
>
>Is this close to the Sepia-VM I just got from MIS?
>
snip

>Martin Wesley
>

Thanks Martin,

You answered my last post before I posted it!

AZ
Maker of Lookaround panoramic camera.

http://www.lookaroundcam.com/
         or
keyword.com lookaround