Digital BW, The Print

This post was very interesting to me because although I own 
Piezography 6.04, I prefer to use my own Epson driver workflow.  This 
is not because Piezography is incapable of good prints; rather it is 
because I developed my method before I purchased Piezography (when 
the price was reduced).  The post was deja-vous for me – only last 
week I sent an e-mail to Martin Wesley suggesting such an experiment, 
except I had proposed that each ink position be tested individually, 
by putting the MIS clear base in all other positions.  I had put the 
experiment aside because it served no immediate purpose to me, 
filling 5 color cartridges for a parametric experiment was not a 
relishing thought.  In any event, the post made me want to try it out 
for myself.  Here is what I did and what I found:

I loaded MIS clear base in the black ink position.  The color 
cartridge was Epson OEM dyes.  I printed 1-inch square pure black, 
and the standard black-to-white gradient, and 21-step wedge.  My 
printer is a 1280, and the images were all in grayscale gamma 2.2, 
using PhotoShop 5.5.  I printed with PCM unchecked, using three media 
different settings. All prints were made at 1440 dpi and high speed 
turned off.

It is very, very important that all pure black is purged.  Initially, 
I did see a lot of brown color in the 100% back squares.  These faded 
after a number of prints.  After the previous black ink was 
sufficiently purged, the 1-inch pure black squares printed white (!), 
with just barely discernible lay down of the clear base.  So, clearly 
the post by Cone is not the full story.  The Epson driver did not 
appear to use yellow ink in the 100% square; in all of the media 
settings I tried (PQIJ, MPHW, and IJBL Film).

The story becomes more interesting when the gradient & 21 steps were 
printed with these media settings. There is NO evidence of excessive 
yellow use in the shadows (75% plus) using the PQIJ and IJBL Film 
settings.  The gradients show a smooth cool tone, with some magenta 
hued crossovers. The IJBL Film setting showed some reddish tone in 
the 80-85% range.  The prints using the MPHW setting, however, are 
quite different; there is prominent brown-yellow coloration in the 
95% step.  The gradient shows the brown-yellow coloration extending 
beyond 95%.  I wonder what media setting was used by Cone in his 
experiments.  What printer did he use? And all other important 
details?

When I used Piezography in these experiments, I more-or-less 
duplicated what was posted by Cone.

So what does all this mean?  First, I doubt the fade seen in PT-K ink 
has much to do with the so-called "workflows".  Use of light gray ink 
(yellow position) in Eposn driver seems to depend on the media 
setting. But, what I learned was that I might experiment with 
different media settings in my "lumped" workflow.

I will mail the prints I made to Martin. If there is any interest I 
would be glad to e-mail him my scans to be posted.

Anyone want to buy my Piezography License? Going Cheap ;-)

Best wishes.

Shilesh


--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@y..., "Jeff Randall" 
<jrandall@c...> wrote:
> >"magerabamb" <MagerabamB@n... wrote:
> > The following was published on the Piezography3000 users list.
> > Because so  many users in this group use these workflows I though 
> this should be of  interest to them. Make sure to click on link. 
The 
> pictures are cool.
> > 
> > Brian
> 
> 
> > Subject:  PiezoTone Original Black and Workflows
> > 
> > An important tech bulletin has been produced that has information
> > which will affect users of workflow procedures. It is located at
> > 
> > http://www.inkjetmall.com/store/workflow/workflow-differences.html
> > 
> > This page illustrates the dramatic differences in how 
PiezographyBW
> > plugin and the Woolfe workflow handle the printing of a 
> monochromatic image.
> 
> SNIP
> 
> The results are interesting and informative, but comparing output 
of 
> the PiezoBW driver to John Woolf's lumped/nonpartitioned workflow 
is 
> a little too apples and oranges for my taste.  Jon now has an RGB 
> partitioned workflow for the Epson driver and says he will post the 
> new results.  I suspect the results will not be as marketing 
friendly.
> 
> Jeff Randall