Digital BW, The Print

Martin,

Answered interspersed with your text...

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Martin Wesley [mailto:mwesley250@...]
> Nij,
>
> When I printed out my 100% black squares with the Piezo inks I first
> exported through the Piezo driver and then, on the second one, used
> the Epson drive but selected "Black Only" in the driver options. I
> believe that in this mode the Epson uses just the black ink cartridge.

Gosh - I just knew you were going to say that! After what I said :)

>
> Also if you run all four inks into the black area I would expect a
> lighter result since you are diluting the pure black with lighter
> shades or because the lighter inks wind up on top of the darker ones.
> What I saw on the squares looked like a dusting of lighter ink on top
> of the black ink.

I would have thought the opposite! I can see that you did test this, and
have seen it to be the case... but I would have thought that diluted pigment
on top of pigment would end up as being pigment on pigment (once the carrier
had dried off) - ie the equivalent of printing the sheet twice as has been
discussed recently. Perhaps, though, what you see is the small dye component
of the ink. Intriguing.

> This is very easy to do and you can see for yourself.
>
> In any case, it does suggest that it might be possible to adjust the
> Piezo driver to deliver just the black ink at the 100% level to
> increase the Dmax slightly. I don't think we are talking about a big
> difference here and there may be other tonal trade offs which are
> less desirable.

Have you tried the gamma settings in the driver? I have not... so can not
advise on the results.

Nij