Digital BW, The Print

From the PiezoBW list...has anyone sent Jon a copy of one of his sample
prints that has faded...or a print that was actually made with the piezo
driver?  If not...please do.

Robert


------ Forwarded Message
From: Jon Cone <piezobw@...>
Reply-To: piezography3000@yahoogroups.com
Date: Thu, 03 Oct 2002 02:52:04 -0400
To: <piezography3000@yahoogroups.com>
Subject: [piezoBW] New Piezography Products

Piezography News


At PhotoPlus Expo on October 31, we are releasing all 4 PiezoTone hue gray
sets and 2 new Piezography black ink positions. This will bring the total of
black inks to three. Additionally, ImagePrint by ColorByte Software will be
the first software product to support all of the Piezography inks. There is
support for the 1280/1290, 7000, 7500, 9000, 9500. Add'l printers are
planned. Cone Editions Press, Ltd will be providing the profile support, and
it will be a daunting task considering how many papers are now on the market
and how many inks we have (4 PiezoTone hues x 3 blacks = 12)

The PiezoTone hue gray sets are Warm Neutral, Selenium Tone, Cool Neutral,
and Carbon Sepia. They comprise three gray dilutions available in 3 or 5 ink
sets. They are compatible with each other and with any of the 3 blacks. The
PiezoTone gray sets are made from 100% pigments without the use of dye or
metal complex. They are all carbon based with additional pigments added for
color. The Carbon Sepia is pure carbon without add'l pigments. If you liked
the warm faded look of the PiezographyBW inks (now Sundance Neutral Warm),
you will like this ink very much as it has the warmth but without the
density loss. Also the ink has been shaped to maintain the same directional
facets when dried down. There is nil metamerism and the ink can pick up
subtle hue differences depending upon paper. Very platinum like. Cool
Neutral is just off neutral to the cool side and does not have the blue look
of the other cool neutrals.

The choice of blacks is going to expand to include inks which are suitable
for all types of quad printing. We did not design the original black for use
other than PiezographyBW software. That software uses a very small amount of
black in in proportion to the darkest gray (cyan position). The original
PIezoTone black has a very high Optical Density which was the highest
available at the time of its release. When printed with PiezographyBW
software it was not expected to produce any fade results which were
unacceptable. That is, they were expected to be similar to other inks on the
market. However, although we have not seen any printed samples of rapid
fading other than in pictures posted on the web, it is clear to us that it
is very unwise to experiment with workflows that the user is uncertain about
how it prints the individual ink components.

Reports were made earlier in which it was noted that the black faded when
left on its own. We posted pictures which showed that the performance of the
inks were acceptable when used with Piezography. Paul Roark who has been
doing enormous amounts of testing and which we are very thankful for has
published data which shows that they are not acceptable when used on their
own. Using them with workflows is somewhere in between depending upon the
workflow apparently. Paul Roark found:

PiezoTone Grays have a fading rate below 2% which is not discernable to the
human eye, and the similar ink positions of MIS-FS inks have a fade rate of
18% and the MIS-FSN inks have a fade rate of 16.9% which are very
discernible.

His tests show that using the PIezoTone black position only results in a 11%
fade rate and 5.8% and 3.5% respectively for the two MIS-Blacks.

There wasn't any data published for the results of the black when used with
PiezographyBW other than comparative with MIS inks using photographs. The
PiezoTones do not change hue except in the black position which warm fades
while the similar ink FS completely fades warm.

There are obviously different strengths when all the inks are compared, and
while none seem satisfactory on their own - combinations of products from
the two companies are winning favor.

We introduced PiezoTone black because we were under the impression that the
majority of our users wanted a black which approached silver print and were
willing to have fade to an acceptable carbon base black - rather than a
black which did not fade at all but was less dark than current solutions.

At the time it was not possible to produce from 100% pigment a black which
was dark enough.

When we analyzed MIS-FSN by thin layer chromaticity testing it revealed 10%
AZO dyes and this would account for the 3.5 - 5.8% fades in Roark's tests.

We gave our chemists the task of finding a way to make Carbon black denser
in Optical Desnity. We wanted a black at least as black as the MIS-FSN and
the old Piezo black - but we wanted it to have the performance of our
PiezoTone grays. That meant no dye no metal. They were able to produce a new
carbon black formula with this property by carefully shaping the carbon
particles. The result is a greater density and no need for dye or metal
complex to achieve a black similar to MIS.

By the way the ingredient we used in the original PiezoTone black is a metal
complex not usually found in inks. Its property is extremely black mass
tone. 

Now that we have three blacks available I will detail their properties and
their attraction to users, or what is their strong points in difference to
each other which would make a user choose one over another.

The original Black is for users who want a maximum black which nears Silver
Print OD. If used with PiezographyBW it will have fade characteristics which
are about congruent with our old black and other blacks on the market. It
will fade to its carbon content as the metal complex stuff that makes it so
black eventually fades. Its initial OD may make it appear to fade worse than
other blacks. But the ending points are very similar when used correctly. We
believe that this ink gives the greatest combined longevity and dMAX
currently available. But its selling point is that it is blacker than
anything else on the market and it has good fading characteristics. Some
users are experiencing problems with this ink of which the majority appear
to be from using it with RGB workflows which print great amounts of black in
conjunction with the yellow ink position. PiezographyBW software prints only
small amounts of black and not in conjunction to yellow, rather over the
dark position (cyan). Other users have commented to us in regards to
PiezographyBW software but it is not congruent with what we have
experienced. We do not think that this ink should be used with workflows
unless the workflow does not print large amounts of black ink.

Experiment with this ink responsibly. We are not in a position to advise
which workflow is acceptable because we really do not support them. Before
PiezographyBW we partitioned the inks in about the same way using a CMYK
driver. Before that we created input/output tables for use with ConeTech
QuadBlack inks for IRIS. Our input/output tables were published for IRIS as
far back as 1994. We only know one way to print quad inks, a short black
over receding bell shaped curves in the cmy channels (if you can visualize
that you should be able to understand the output table). Now go make some
workflows which do it right....


New carbon pigment made available to Piezography which is shaped differently
than previous carbon pigments will allow for greater density and hence
greater optical density. We should have this pigment exclusive for a year
(maybe a year and a half) and there is great optimism that we should be able
to further increase OD through continued shaping r&d. The two new black inks
based on this pigment follow:

New Piezography MuseumBlack is pure carbon, no additional dyes or metal
complex. It is designed to stay at the same Optical Density (how dark it
is). In that regard it is like the PiezoTone Grays. The PiezoTone Grays fade
less than a couple %, which is not detectable to the human eye. So this
would be a rock hard combination. But it is not very black. It will start
out about as black for example as the MIS and Sundance Blacks. But the MIS
and Sundance blacks fade because of their dye content.  MusuemBlack will not
fade to a discernible degree. So in the end MusuemBlack will appear to have
a much greater Optical Density than other black ink products. That will be
its selling point. We can do it without dye or metal complex now. Great
breakthrough. This ink is compatible therefore with any type of workflow and
should make a great black ink only black.

New Piezography PortfolioBlack will end up at about the same OD as
MuseumBlack or just  higher after its small amount of metal complex fades
out, but it will start off with a much blacker OD. It is in between
MuseumBlack needs and Original Black needs. It will perform better than the
original black but not be as black. Its final fade point is still being
tested and it may end up to be an exciting ink. Lets wait for the data and
compare then.

If we extend this black even further with metal complex as we did with the
original black, we may see OD readings in the 2.1 and higher range. This may
open up a whole new can of whoopie. We are already testing formulas like
this with Xenon and in a few months may make some announcements which would
open up new opportunities in optical density but with fade. We are hoping
the fade like original black will be to levels congruent with the underlying
carbon. In the case of this ink, the underlying carbon can now be made
denser. So an improvement in the waiting. Maybe. We'll see whether extending
it is possible to make the OD worth the density loss. A version of this
black might make for a startling exhibition black where dramatic effect
unavailable in silver print is desired. The new carbon black is not as brown
as the blacks used in all the other inks on the market - so there may be
great hopes that this product can have an interesting future. We'll keep you
updated.


It will be interesting for us here to see how users react when presented
with three black choices that allow them to choose between aesthetics and
longevity. 72% of the users we polled answered they would rather have a
black that approached silver print and had fade characteristics to our older
dMax then a black which would not fade but was not very black. We had only
polled a small % of the user base and I think I will be surprised if the
Museum Black becomes the most popular. I think it will be a toss up between
the other 2. Perhaps we can keep a running poll going here in the next few
months as users try them all and decide... The running poll lets users go in
and change their mind as they begin to experiment.

We will be supplying on or about PhotoPlus Expo complete Xenon data sets for
fading with all of our current and past ink products in comparison with
competitive products for analysis.

There really is a lot going on and no one in Topsham has a minute to spare.
I am going to have to go back to my schedule. But I will read this list for
the remainder of the week. I will be traveling Thursday but should be able
to get on again in the evenings on Thur and Fri. So if there are questions I
will try and answer. I am sorry that neither myself or Bill has had time for
the lists. We are though answering e-mails sent to us directly. But this
should get out to many of our users. A mailing is planned with all the
printed ink samples and longevity testing data to our registered user base.



Jon Cone