Digital BW, The Print

Due to a typo and a mistake regarding Dmax in my initial post, I am
reposting this information to clear up any misunderstandings (and correct my
grammar. <G>).

Revised Selenium PiezoTones Review (Cross posted)

I received sample bottles of ConeTech's new selenium hue PiezoTone ink about
three weeks ago for Beta testing and have been using them steadily with a
CIS in an Epson 1280 for the past two weeks.

As far as my own personal tastes go, this is the best grayscale ink set I
have seen and I prefer it to anything else I have tried. The hue and the
chromatic complexity of the prints I have been making over the past few days
is indeed right in the range that we commonly associate with selenium toned
silver fiber prints. They have slightly cool highlights and a touch of
magenta in the midtones and shadows. I have toned silver prints on Ilford,
Kodak and Oriental hanging on my living room wall and, while the Selenium PT
prints are not an exact match to any of them, they fit right in. Only their
matte surface gives them away as not being air dried silver fiber and mixed
with matte surface silver fiber would be undetectable as inkjet.

I would not call the Selenium PT inks "neutral" and probably would not like
them so much if they were. The standard selenium toned silver fiber print
that we tend to think of as neutral is in fact not neutral at all. The
nature of the specific emulsion, the color of the paper base and the manner
in which the toning was done results in a print that is subtly varies in hue
as well as tone. This variation that I call chromatic complexity is what
makes silver prints so wonderful and so alive. Even book publishers know
that a true monotone does not adequately represent a photograph and quality
books are done using 2 to 4 inks of different hue to simulate what is
happening in a silver print.

My primary paper is Hahnemuhle Photo Rag and the Selenium PT works
beautifully with this paper. I think the tone on EAM may be a bit better
though. This is my standard proofing paper but the difference in tone may
pull me back in that direction although Photo Rag is probably more archival,
has a nicer texture and brighter white, there seems to be less warming on
the EAM and the initial hue is just a bit more pleasing.

I also tried prints on Hahnem\ufffdhle German Etching and William Turner, Crane
Museo, Legion Photo Matte and Eclipse Satine. The finished look of the print
varies a great deal with the paper you use and this is good news since it
means you can get a lot of different looks just by switching paper. The very
white Legion Photo Matte and Eclipse Satine (Jon can we please, please have
a paper profile for Eclipse!?!?) show more blue and greater variation in hue
overall. The neutral paper base lets all the complex tones in the inks show
through. The Legion Photo Matte is too bright for my taste but the Eclipse
looks very interesting. It seems to do much better with the Selenium PT than
it did with the original Piezo inks. I tried the Orwell profile but it was
not quite right in the lower tones. On the German Etching and Wil. Turner
the prints were excellent but the cream-colored paper base cancels out a
good deal of the coolness in the highlights giving a more neutral look.
Museo is very pleasant with this ink set. Some of the coolness is lost but
it still a very nice alternative to Photo Rag and EAM.

The Dmax of the Selenium PT is identical to the Warm Neutral. Which is to
say very high. On EAM I recorded values in the 1.71 range and on Photo Rag
at 1.80. These were taken from wedges printed using the Piezo driver. The
Photo Rag density is getting very close to silver print Dmax. So close that
the difference does not jump out at you like it does when the inkjet print
Dmax is down at 1.6. Since it appears that the black of the Selenium PT is
the same as the Warm-Neutral it should be possible to obtain even higher
Dmax values using other drivers. With the Warm-Neutral I was getting Dmax
values in the 1.88 to 1.90 range and values of 1.94 have been reported.

Regarding fading I have no data and I don't know how it will compare to
other ink sets. Jon has said it is undergoing RIT testing and did well on
in-house Xenon fade testing. I do notice some warming. It takes about 12 to
24 hours for the prints to "settle" and achieve Dmax and initial color. This
is similar to what I saw with the WN-PT. The change is not very large and
you can accurately assess your prints out of the printer reasonably well
once they are dry. After a few days the Photo Rag prints did show some
visible warm shifting but it seems slight and not objectionable. The EAM
showed much less warm shifting. This is pretty much in keeping with the
other ink sets I have tried.

Metamerism seems very slight and not at all unpleasant. In tungsten and
halogen light the prints are warmer as you would expect and the magenta
predominates a bit. In fluorescent, daylight and mixed tungsten/daylight the
prints are more neutral. Looks great under all light sources that I tried.

Like the WN-PiezoTones I experienced no clogging problems or green casts.
The CIS started right up immediately after vacuum loading and 4 nozzle
cleanings, and has passed every nozzle check since.

At this point my favorite inks for use with the Piezo driver are
Selenium-PiezoTone, Warm Neutral-PiezoTone, MIS-FS and MIS-FS Neutral in
that order. For me and my own tastes, I think the PiezoTones are the better
way to go. I especially recommend the Selenium-PT to people who are
transitioning from traditional silver fiber printing to inkjet. While you
will still need to get used to the matte surface of the papers, you will not
have to go through a big hue adjustment.

All in all the Selenium-PiezoTone inks represent a really stunning addition
to what is available for inkjet printing. With the reduced price of the
Piezo driver and these new inks, I strongly suggest you give them a try. We
each have our own likes and preferences but I will be very surprised if this
does not become a top contender for the most popular ink set.

Martin Wesley

http://www.borderless-photos.de/guests.html