I agree that the draw down is just a quick test. It can, however, provide a lot of information, including on a per hour and expense basis. Labs use these types of tests all the time.
Be aware that STS MK that is sold in their carts is not wj1082. As far as I know they only sell the "Image Specialists" (now a part of STS) "WJ" products at larger volumes and not off their web page. (Image Specialists' founder/chemist who was behind the products, but died, was "Walt.")
Paul
On Sun, Apr 3, 2016 at 8:08 PM, richard@... [DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint] <DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com> wrote:
I know Paul Roark does draw downs to measure the color and density of different inks. It might be a quick test to see what an ink does without loading a cartridge and printing with it, but I don't think draw downs (or simply measuring the 100% patch in calibration mode) can accurately illustrate the possible density with a given ink because the paper will actually lose density as it is flooded with ink. To get a clearer understanding of what an ink is capable of just print the black channel from the ink separation image and measure and graph each patch (after force drying it for 2-3 minutes).
I haven't tested the Epson Hot Press, but I've measured countless ink separation images over the last few years. I've been doing tests all day today with Canson Edition Etching shows that the STS Matte Black (v1.1) reaches 1.71 at 30% and a Dmax of 1.73 at 65% before falling back down to 1.56 at 100%. I've included a series of Lab_L measurements of the black channel's ink separation image as an example, but after checking a handful of measurement files I keep for different papers, they all exhibit similar densities for the black channel.96.93 46.98 38.75 27.95 21.46 18.81 17.50 16.67 16.30 16.14 15.93 15.82 15.72 15.72 15.65 15.63 15.71 15.92 16.41 16.69 17.24Take a look at this post I wrote a few years ago. The graphs can illustrate what I'm talking about here: Comparing Cone Piezography Shade 1 and MIS Ebony Shade 1. The post uses the old version of the MIS MK, but I have STS MK v 1.1 in the K channel now. I will do an updated post with the new ink at some point... I don't have a full set of the v 1.1 inks here, but I do have some clear base on hand I could use to mix up the STS MK. We'll see how distracted I get this week...Comparing Cone Piezography Shade 1 and MIS Ebony S...This post is just an initial demonstration about the differences of the matte black ink between two different third party ink manufacturers' dedicated black and...Preview by Yahoo
Richard Boutwell