Digital BW, The Print

So here is the message that was censored from the Piezography Support 
Forum by tech support.  I have to say that I find it very sad that 
they would try to control the flow of information regarding their 
products.

The original problem was in regards to visible clumpy looking dots 
using the new PT-WN inks with PiezographyBW software (on EAM and 
other papers as well).  There was an ongoing thread discussing this 
issue over on the Piezography forum.  A number of us have also 
brought this to the attentions of Piezography Tech support to no 
avail.  All that I've heard has been in the form of an Email
message 
about two weeks ago saying that they were "looking into it."

These dots are very visible in the gray transition below about 55%.  
Not only do prints with smooth dark gray transitions appear to band, 
but the dark gray areas of the print appear clumpy and lack a sense 
of continues tone prints.  I thought that this might only be on Epson 
1200 series printers, or only my printer, but a number of other forum 
participants confirmed this same problem in their prints as well.

See the following for examples of the problem:

http://www.aronica.com/patch/WedgeFull.jpg
http://www.aronica.com/patch/WedgeCloseup.jpg
http://www.aronica.com/patch/seaweed.jpg
http://www.aronica.com/patch/seaweedcloseup.jpg

My configuration is using Windows 2000 and pre-filled carts ordered 
directly from Inkjet Mall.

Last week I switched to MIS FSN-E using a CIS and developed my own 
curves for EAM.  I can now report that I am getting prints that are 
nearly as good tonality wise as the Piezo system.  With the progress 
that I've made in the last few days, I'm convinced that with
a little 
more playing around I'll have prints that at least equal the
Piezo 
system in terms of producing the full tonal range.  However, more 
importantly, making this switch has fixed the visible clumpy dots.  
I'm using the same printer and the exact same photoshop files
with no 
changes.  For example, the above image of the seaweed no long shows 
any of the dots visible in the above example.

It is unfortunate that I was forced to leave the Piezography system 
as I really loved the lack of clogging and a number of other aspects 
of the system.  However, the switch is like night and day.  All the 
dot-ridden images produced under Piezography are now beautiful and 
dotless using the above MIS inks and the Epson driver.

I hope this helps others to avoid making the costly mistake I made 
investing in the Piezo system.

-Mark