Digital BW, The Print

Hi Steve, I've printed many a print lately on the cold tone VM MIS inkset. I swear to God it's blacker than piezo black. Again, wer'e
picking nits here. the difference certainly is not great! just noticeable. I would swear the MIS VM black HEXtone ink and Beta Black are the
same ink. I can't prove it, but I sure can't see any difference. the MIS STANDARD black is NOT nearly as black.

By the way, the Generations "Enhanced" black is the Renamed "Beta Black" which isn't Beta anymore.

And yes, unfortunately, MIS has mislabeled inks more than once on bottles I have gotten from them, but they were good enough to catch the
mistake and sent properly labeled inks out immediately.

Again, I'm not on a 4 color printer, but a 6 (1280 with the MIS inks). I don't know for a fact that the inks are the same for both printers.
I just assume 4 of them would be the same with the additional 2 light ones for the 6 tone set.

Can't see what difference a 7000 printer should make, but who knows?

Yes, I've printed black patches with all inks. They match the dip and dunk tests.

In Paul Roark's tests, he has determined the paper with the deepest black is Epson Archival. When you put up an Eclipse or a legion photo
matte print next to an EAM print, the blacks look darker to me. BUT the paper is so much whiter than the EAM that this may be causing it to
LOOK like it is darker than it really is because of the better contrast. I just don't know.  Again, we are picking nits. All the black inks
are pretty black, except the mis standard, and the old Generations standard, which were/are not as black as their current offerings.


> Could they have loaded the Double density black in the VM-HEX-4-K Bottle?

Yes.

I have 3 mis labeled bottles of MIS Ink. IT CAN happen. But again, they caught the mistake and corrected it immediately, much to Bob's
credit.

>
> I would assume you printed all your inks with a black patch only to make sure
> your workflow wasn't adding any other inks to your black. Heck, print a black
> patch with black ink only selected and see what you get? The Piezo black on
> EAM coudn't be any blacker but blue might make you think so..\

> Is the VM-HEX-4-K the best balck from MIS?

I don't know about the hex FOUR k. It is if it's identical to the HEX inks.

But you said that the MIS black was a full f stop lighter than the piezo, which is WAY out of line according to all my prints. Lets say you
have a 25 point scale. 0 is black velvet in a cave at night underground. White is the chrome on your old car's bumper.

The best black ink there is is (not yet discovered by anyone on this list), is about a 4 on that scale.  MIS is a 4.5, Piezo is a 4.9.  We
all want the 0, but that will give the ink folks something to work towards during the next few years....

The eye can see the difference if you look very carefully, but it is really not worth talking about, except on these lists.

I suppose if I really REALLY wanted the deepest black in the world I would use glossy papers and varnish them. Hope my aesthetic taste in
prints never stoops to using glossy paper!

Wonder what epson is going to do about improving the print quality of the 1280 printer? Could it get any better?  They can improve inks and
paper, but print quality? It will be interesting to see the ad copy on their next line of printers.... 5600 DPI Print Quality! 16 inches
Wide! 2 minutes for a 16x20 Print! $499!


Incidentally, FYI, Somerset now has 4 coated papers of various thickness' and textures. They are all the same color, and print identically.
None has as good a black as Epson Archival or Legion Photo Matte.

In any event, all the prints in the Piezo exchange were pretty good quality, no?  Mine had a black at least as deep as any of them, and it
was the MIS Hextone VM ink.

We should stop picking nits and get to work printing.  But it will never ever happen. There's always this one more paper or another inkset
coming out......

There IS a new inkset just out, the indelibles. But they are too expensive for me to test. And then there's the Eclipse, the Photo Rag,
the...... You get the picture. Always something new, and you KNOW we'll test it and pick the nits out of the blacks....

jerry



Jerry