Digital BW, The Print

The recent discussions on the merits of single-ink printing, coupled with 
my experience of some beautiful mono-ink prints at a friend's studio got me 
thinking some blue sky thoughts.  Moreno's mono-ink prints were nearly 
indistinguishable from his quads, reinforcing the opinions of others on the 
list that one ink prints can look just fine.

Since one ink is nearly enough to print many monochrome images, two inks 
should be more than enough for the resolution limits of current "consumer" 
inkjet printers.  Two inks theoretically allows for 512 discrete shades of 
grey, doesn't it?  Duotones rule!

This leaves us with the possibility of (in four-ink printers) using *two* 
toner inks, not just one.  The use of two, coloured toner inks, layered 
with a high quality monochrome image could present a whole spectrum of new 
creative controls.  For instance, one toner ink could be warm, the other 
cool.  We might be able to simulate the look of some of the early colour 
systems, like autochrome, or we might come up with completely new looks 
never before available.

What if one of the toner inks was metallic or pearlescent?  I'll bet it 
won't be long before we can simulate that wonderful metallic look of a 
Cibachrome, but in a monochrome, tinted image.

Paul's probably already thought of this and is knee deep in experiments 
already.  : )

Peter McLennan