Digital BW, The Print

Bruce,

You wrote:

>Just ordered a roll of EEM/EAM from Atlex to learn my new/used 7000
>on, and now must hope it's not flat and yellow:-(

My new EEM roll is OK.  Not the best blacks I've seen, but within the
reasonable range.

>... MIS ... various inksets (Original Quad,
>FS, FSN, VM and VMS quad and "hextone")...
>table of interchangeable inks would be useful ...

The MIS original Quad inkset shared the black ink with the original MIS
Archival color pigment inkset.  However, the old quad and the newer VM and
FS quads have no common inks (although the quad ink is used at different
dilutions in the VM inkset).

All VM and FS inksets use the same black ink.  It is a co-solvent ink that
has a stronger smell than the other quads are Archival color inks.

The FS midtones are not shared with any other inkset.

The VM midtones are not shared by any other inkset.

The FS-N cyan and the VM-S (sepia to neutral) inksets share the same
cyan-position ink.

All FS inks are supposed to have the same densities as the original PiezoBW
inks.  The new PiezoTone may have slightly different densities.

The FS, VM and PiezoBW (now Sundance?) have the cyan (darkest gray) ink
density in common.  The next lightest gray -- the magenta -- is different
between the VM and FS inksets.  They are not interchangeable.

Don't take old ink density percentages at face value.  The numbers just
designated which inks were darker or lighter.  The companies did not want to
divulge their mixing ratios, and the mixing ratios and resulting reflectance
densities are not the same or in a linear relationship.

> Is "DD Black" the same as the FS K, for instance?

No, the DD black blocks up the blacks badly, at least with the curves
written for the Vm inksets.  On different papers and with different
profiles, it might be fine.  The VM/FS K fade and warming performance on EAM
was/is better.

>I'm beginning to see why people pay big bucks for a RIP...
>lots of work ahead.

Professional labs often can't take the time to fiddle with things, and they
use lots of different papers.  I don't use that many papers, and I find the
ability to re-profile my system for a new batch of EAM to be useful.  If I
relied on someone else to profile the system, I'm not sure it would get
done.  Another factor for your 7000 is that the Epson driver does not have
the best blacks on that printer -- unlike the situation with the desktop
printers.

Good luck.

Paul
http://www.PaulRoark.com