Digital BW, The Print

David, 
First I would like to correct an impression you have that is, in my honest opinion, incorrect.  You say you are willing to dedicate your printer to BW printing. 

PiezoBW inks deliver very "black" blacks.  How black do you need?  If you are considering devoting a $3,000+ printer to quad tone printing, I suggest you get sample prints and a black swatch from each ink seller or "manufacturer" and judge for yourself.  

My images usually involve significant black areas on the print (about 30% of total image).  Solid black.  I use the PiezoBW inkset and get blacks that look like the black of a well used fireplace chimney...carbon black.  Deep solid black. Blacker than night.  Black as soot...black as the ace of spades.   

So I believe if you are judging ink alone (and not paper/coating/ink combinations) you should not state that "Cones inks do not give a good rich black" when in fact they do. Of course you have to know how to use them, the right papers, and the right profiles.  That comes with time but is in fact also easy using the Conetech profiles supplied with the software.

Steadman


  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: daviddstock@... 
  To: DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com 
  Sent: Monday, September 10, 2001 12:52 PM
  Subject: [Digital BW] metamerism confusion


  I've been reviewing all the posts on the various Epson groups 
  about metamerism, because I have to make a final decision 
  about what inkset to use in my 7000 for printing a portfolio of 
  black and white photographs. I have a pretty good sense of what 
  the discussion has been, but still have a few questions.

  Like many people, I would absolutely love to be able to print 
  black and white images using color inks. If this is impractical 
  because of metamerism, I am willing to dedicate my 7000 to 
  quadtones, at least for now.

  As I understand it, all the pigmented ink sets have some 
  metamerism. Epson's pigs are the worst, Generations is pretty 
  bad, and Cone's color piezos have little metamerism in most 
  situations. However, Cone's inks do not give a good rich black.

  Questions:

  1. Is it feasible to use Generations black with Cone's color inkset 
  to get better blacks? (I have seen reports of people mixing 
  Generations black with MIS quad inks and Cone quad inks, 
  which makes me optimistic. On the other hand, I have seen 
  reports that adding any Generations black ink causes noticeable 
  metamerism to appear.)

  2. Is there any other way to print grayscale images using 
  long-lasting color inks without getting strong metamerism or 
  weak blacks?

  3.  Why is metamerism not a problem with quadtone inksets that 
  have pigments in them? (Especially when folks use Generations 
  black in the mix...)

  Thanks in advance for any help.

  --David Stock


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