Digital BW, The Print

Truman,

Comparing the two system, MIS-VM with separation curves and PiezoTone inks
with the Piezo driver, I think that you can get excellent results either
way. I don't think that either one has an edge in the ability to produce
smooth tones. I find that the Piezo driver is more straight forward to use
and generally gets you where you want to go with few problems. The RGB
separation curve method can be more tricky due to the nature of what is
being done to the data in order to persuade the Epson driver to partition
the inks the way you want them. You do have more ability control things with
this workflow though. In most situations the Piezo driver seems to work just
fine for me and in others the MIS-VM workflow seems to be better. Depends
upon the image and how I have hacked it up.

With the standard MIS-VM you have a wide range of hue from very blue to warm
depending upon which curve you use or intermediate steps by combining
curves. The Neutral Warm PiezoTone is too warm for my taste and does not
seem to change a great deal with different papers. The Selenium PiezoTones
offer a good range of overall hue by picking different papers. With EAM,
Photo Rag and Crane Museo or German Etching I find I can get a cool to warm
neutral. Legion Photo Matte and Eclipse Satine give even cooler tones than
the EAM.

For me the solution has been two 1280's one with MIS-VM and the other with
Selenium PT. At the moment everything seems to be getting printed on the
Selenium PT machine.

For you it sounds like it may boil down to just how much variation in hue
you want from print to print. With VM it is huge and with Selenium PT it is
modest. I would suggest that you get the 1280 and Piezo driver (don't forget
the discount price for list members at inkjetgoodies) then try with
cartridges with both inks to see which you prefer.

Martin Wesley

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



----- Original Message -----
From: "Truman Prevatt" <tprevatt@...>
To: <DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Wednesday, August 07, 2002 2:58 PM
Subject: [Digital BW] need advice


> I am ready to get a printer. I was waiting to see what happened with the
> 2200, to make the decision. It seems that the 2200 is not a good printer
> for someone who is primarly interested in B&W.  So it's the 1280. Now I
> need to select the inking system. It's boiled down to the MIS hextone
> Variable Mix inks or the Piezo driver and Piezo inks. I do like the
> flexibility of being able to select print coolness based on the subjec,
> what I am trying to say and where it will be displayed. This seems to
> argue for the MIS solution.
>
> One the other hand I have heard that the Piezo driver produces a
> smoother tonal range. All my images will be scanned 6x7 or 4x5 so the
> tonal range will be there to capture. Is this ture about the Piezo dirver?
>
> So instead of talking about the merits of imbedded assembly code in a C
> program could someone give me a little help here:-).
>
> Truman
>
>
>
>
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