Digital BW, The Print

Paul,

Are the other 3 inks (apart from the "toner" ink) in the MIS VM just the
standard MIS Quadtones? Which black is used?

Thanks

Tim A

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Paul Roark [mailto:paul.roark@...]
> Sent: August 27, 2001 2:29 PM
> To: DigitalB&WPrint
> Subject: [Digital BW] Quadtone or TriTone: MIS VM vs. PiezoBW Questions
>
>
> Steadman,
>
> You wrote:
>
>
> >...I am impressed that the MIS VM inks offer an interesting
> alternative for
> >standard quadtone BW printing.  And for now at least, it seems to be
> >an inexpensive inkset for printers who want cool tones from one cart/cis.
>
> >I understand that one of the ink positions (magenta) is the Cool
> Tone Toner
> >(and contains some blue dye based "toning" inks).
>
> On 4-ink printers the toner is in the yellow position.  On 6-ink printers
> the toner is in the magenta position.
>
> The toner is composed of pigments -- not dyes.  I use MIS archival color,
> that has been rated to at least 50 years by RIT.
>
> >... question:  If you want a warm toned print, using
> >the warm curve, would that not make your print a
> >"tritone" instead of a "quadtone" in reality?
>
> What first got me thinking about a variable-tone inkset was Jon Cone's
> statements that only 3 inks are needed to make a smooth-toned B&W.  But,
> since I always have to see for myself, I first wrote a curve that printed
> the Piezo inkset through the Epson driver but totally eliminated the
> lightest gray ink from the highlights.  When I compared test strips with
> prints that had the lightest gray ink there, I could see no differences
> between the test strips.  That is, the second-lightest gray ink
> in the Piezo
> inkset could print a visually dotless highlight.  The lightest
> gray ink was
> superfluous.
>
> So, it is correct that for the most part the warm curve prints with three
> inks in most of the curve.  (The toner is still needed to control in black
> ink, but is so dilute compared to that ink that it doesn't have
> much visual
> impact.)
>
> >Also, I am no ink chemist, but I always had the impression
> >that cyan dye inks were subject to fading more readily
> >than black inks (dye or pigment).
>
> The cyan pigment (not dye) that is used is even more light fast than the
> black pigment ink.  It's an amazing ink and is probably why the cooler the
> print is, the more lightfast it seems to be.  See the MIS RIT results at
>
> http://www.inksupply.com/index.cfm?source=html/rit.html
>
> I've done accelerated fade testing with a florescent light fader,
> and Jerry
> Olson has done south window tests.  I use Archival Matte as my standard
> paper for these test.  The tests all seem to show that the variable-tone
> inksets are more stable than Piezo inkset.  In straight Piezo v. standard
> MIS accelerated fade testing in my florescent light fader, the Piezo test
> strip faded fully 65% more than the MIS test strip after 300 hours of
> exposure.  I always put comparison test strips in the fader together so as
> to eliminate other variables that could throw off comparisons between
> different test cycles.
>
> So, no guarantees that the MIS VM inkset will last for any number
> of years,
> but it is essentially the MIS archival inkset that was tested to 50 years.
> The weak link in that test was the yellow, and the MIS VM inkset has no
> yellow pigment ink in it.  Moreover, the black ink that MIS uses for the
> base of the gray inks is more lightfast than the Generations
> black that has
> been tested to 75 years.
>
> I feel confident that the MIS VM inkset has significantly less dye in it
> than the Piezo inkset or the Generations inkset.  All of the pigments are
> carbon that is coated with a colorant.  MIS, perhaps being too
> conservative,
> called this coating a "dye."  However, this is not a dye in solution, and
> those are the ones that appear to be the problem.  The pigment
> coating is on
> all the desktop pigments -- even the black inks.  The extra dyes that I'm
> concerned with are those that are put into the solution and are
> not part of
> the pigment particle.  There are none of those in the MIS VM inkset.
>
> I beleive this MIS VM inkset should be as good as the current pigment
> technology allows, and that appears to be very good compared to any other
> inkjet output.  At some point I'll fade-test it against the Epson 2000P
> inkset and see how it does.
>
> Paul
> http://www.PaulRoark.com
>
>
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