Digital BW, The Print

Hello all;
This is my first real posting on this forum, so it may be a bit 
lengthy. Background: like most on this site, I make my living with 
photography, though it's architecture/interiors that pays the bills. 
I have put together an extensive portfolio of B&W images that I've 
been showing around S. Florida, anywhere I can. Tough to get good 
show space around here, but that's another subject. I got into 
computers and DI about three years ago, but only recently got my 
first & second IJ printers, an Eps. 780 and an a 1280. Amazing 
machines both of them, considering the cost, and where the 
technology stood just three years ago. Some research and a look at 
Mike Kravit's work convinced me it was it was time to try B&W 
printing, so I started with MIS VM inks, and Paul Roark's workflow. 
Mike's work BTW, is quite excellent both in technique and content. 
Unfortunately I have to report less than optimum results with the VM 
setup. The `neutral' curves produced ok results, the cool was a bit 
better, but for me at least, the `medium warm' was medium muddy, and 
the `warm' was very muddy. The problem seemed to be over-inking in 
the zone 4 to zone 5 regions. I'm sure this works better on a four 
ink machine, or maybe I simply did something wrong? While the 
problem was barely perceptible to non-existent with the cool & 
neutral curves, it was very obvious at the warm end. I fought it for 
two weeks, trying to refine the curves. I tried other workflows; in 
the end I gave up trying to retain the warm to cool adjustability & 
decided to come up with a neutral-cool inkset that was hopefully 
more intuitive and WYSIWYP, and delineated the trouble areas better. 
 So, four weeks, many sets of latex gloves, syringes, and empty 
cartridges later, I've tested five different re-arrangements of the 
VM inkset, and have settled on the last, feeling I've achieved 95% 
of my goal:
The color is very neutral on a truly white paper. Obviously, that is 
affected by the      paper tone a lot. Also, it is adjustable to 
taste when you mix the inks.
 The tonal separation is excellent down to the 90%-95% point, at 
which there is a conflict between needing a solid black and good 
shadow separation, and it is sometimes hard to get both. The rest of 
the range just sings, however, all the way up to some very subtle 
and luminous highlights.
The process is virtually WYSIWYP:  I set up an image (in greyscale 
or RGB) so it looks good on screen, taking care to make important 
shadow detail visible, by whichever means suits. I've found that 
sending it to the printer with a 10 or 15% dot gain profile will 
give me just about exactly what I see on screen for most prints, 
with very little tweaking needed for the balance. 
So for anyone out there having similar troubles with the VM inks (a 
friend has also had similar problems with the FS inks w/Epson driver 
& workflow system) here's my latest version, and the first one 
really worth trying. Switch/modify ink positions as follows:
	
Cart/Cis position;  CYAN  use:  CYAN VM ink
	      PHOTO CYAN   >	YELLOW  VM ink
	         MAGENTA   >    PHOTO CYAN  VM  ink
          PHOTO  MAGENTA   >    YELLOW
	          YELLOW   >    PHOTO MAGENTA plus 2drops/5ml photo- 
cyan
Because the VM inks seem a little warm to me, I've been mixing in 
1drop/ml of the magenta ink, which is very blue. So in effect, I've 
come up with my own FS cool inks, and I'm getting some excellent 
hassle-free results, not counting the refilling business which I 
hope to do away with shortly. Any one else "doing their own" out 
there?

Steve Karafyllakis
www.stevekphoto.com