Digital BW, The Print

Robert,

>> ...have you measured the UC Matte black density on Eclipse or other
>> papers?
>
>...I was working off of numbers that Antonis
>had generated with his 2200.  ...
>The bottom line is that the matte black ink is great with EAM
>(about 1.75).  It is fair with photorag (mid 1.6's) and
>poor with other papers (low 1.5's and below).  Personally,
>I don't see the advantage of working with matte
>black unless the only paper you are going to print on is EAM.
>It doesn't seem like a good ink to base a quad black inkset on to me.

No, if Matte black can't do any better than the low 1.5's with most matte
papers, most people will have no interest in it -- especially given its
cost.  EAM still is a good paper for many things, but I'm not interested in
a quad that is only really good with EAM.

>The photo black ink gives you the advantage of being able to
>easily switch between matte and luster papers.

What does the Photo black give in dmax for EAM, Eclipse Satine, and PhotoRag
without coating?

> At this point everything I'm working with will be coated in
>the end...so the difference in uncoated dmax doesn't really matter to me.
>Photoblack on poor black papers like Somerset enhanced or
>Eclipse Satine can reach a dmax of 2 when coated...

I suspect that most will want a black ink that looks OK without coating.  At
this point I also think that the real "keepers" that I do will be coated.
I'd guess most will not take that extra step.

I'll be curious how the Museum black looks and tests.

Paul