Digital BW, The Print

Hi Peter.  I was also doing B&W on my 1290 using the Epson Colour 
dyes.  Finally plunged for the MIS VM set with Pauls recently done 
curves.

I would agree with you that the blacks are not a deep as the dye - 
this is common knowledge.

However, I have now changed the back for the Generations Enhanced 
black (they seem to be comaptible, so I just swapped the CIS bottle 
over after clamping the line.

On EAM, this gives noticeably deeper blacks, on Photo Rag, they are 
super rich.  

In addition, and in the quest for deeper than deep, I have also now 
tried various spray coatings on various papers. My current favourite 
is the Ilford Smooth Pearl Paper, with a Satin coat.  Surface seems 
bullet proof afterwards and they are gorgeous (with the look and 
feel of a traditional wet print).  When I need matt I am happy with 
EAM, run over with a matt spray coat if the blacks need to be just 
that bit deeper.  This - to my eyes - rivals photo rag and is 
somewhat cheaper.

The Espon semi-gloss also works well and has the advantage of being 
available on A3+ rolls for those B&W panoramas.  The only issue I 
found on the this was the warmth of the print.  The warm curve is 
really hot, almost sepia (I kind of like it), you need to use the 
cool curve to get a neutral print.

Hope this helps.

Steve.




--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@y..., "Peter A. Klein" 
<pklein@2...> wrote:
> I have an Epson 1280.  I used up the supplied Epson color inks and 
> then switched to MIS VM.  On Paul Roarke's recommendation, I've 
been 
> using the Tyler Boley curves.  On Epson Matte Heavyweight they 
seem 
> to work well without tweaking (at least by my eyes).  However, I 
> recently compared some B&W prints done with the color inks to the 
MIS 
> prints.  The blacks were noticeably blacker in the color-ink 
prints.  
> So by going to MIS VM, I've lost the "greenies and magentas" in 
> various densities, but my blacks aren't quite as rich.
> 
> I think somebody mentioned a while back that they were using some 
> version of MIS Quad or Hex inks with the Epson black ink.  
Supposedly 
> this gave better blacks.
> 
> Could someone confirm that this combination works well, and tell 
me 
> whether you had to tweak the curves to accomodate the Epson black?
> 
> Thanks,
> --Peter Klein
> Seattle, WA