Digital BW, The Print

I use the MIS VM process, and I'm pretty happy with it after some experience
now. But based upon your lack of desire for cool or neutral tones, and your
ardent desire to quickly get up and running, without a hitch, and with tech
support, I'd say pay your bucks and go Piezo straight up. I've never used
Piezo myself, because I wanted the flexibility of a variable tone system,
and I'm pretty stinking cheap, but I also new I could handle a little
messing around (of which there has been some but not TOO much, YMMV). The
thing is just that Piezo is the most "mature" system (using the term in a
marketing perspective), at the moment. But be forewarned, I've lurked these
lists long enough to know, NO inkjet system is without it's own particular
trials, and travails.

Good luck whichever you choose, their all worth some fuss. :-)

Todd

> After lurking here and on the Piezo list, I have decided (I think) to go the
> MIS VM route- because of the flexibility of "toned" prints, and the initial
> investment.  So here are my questions (and I would love to hear from others
> in addition to Jerry and Paul!)
> 
> First, I'm on MacG4/1160, currently using Gen3, and making toned prints on
> EAM.
> 
> 1. Learning curve- yes, one may save several hundred dollars by going MIS
> instead of Piezo, but Piezo is basically plug-and-play, no?  How many hours
> of tweaking, testing, reprinting, re-doing curves, downloading new curves,
> trying Nevins/Woolf/Brandin transfer functions, etc. are required with MIS
> VM to get acceptable prints?
> 
> My experience has me leaning towards going with tried-and-true systems.  I
> can't tell you how many dozens of hours I have wasted trying to profile Gen3
> inks (with Profiler RGB) on my 1160, even on old faithful EAM.  With
> hindsight, it would have been WAY cheaper to pay for custom profiles, even
> at $150 a pop, considering how I value my time.
> 
> So I don't want to be penny wise, pound foolish again.  If I have to spend
> hours and hours tweaking, testing, etc, I'd rather spend a few hundred more
> on Piezo, as aware as I am about clogging, microbanding, and "brown" inks.
> 
> 2.  Variable Toning-
> How variable are they?  Sounds like there's cold, neutral and warm.  (I've
> seen Lyson SG and love what they can do, but I understand there's dot and
> metamerism problems.)  So it sounds like with VM, if you want a "warm" tone,
> you print with only three inks.  Can you truly get different tones "between"
> cold, neutral and warm, like with SG?  And how, by using the Epson sliders?
> If I don't care about cold tones, which I don't, should I just go with Full
> Spectrum?  
> 
> 3.  Profiles in Courage-
> It sounds as if you can only use VM with Paul's curves, and the curves have
> been written for EAM only for the 1160 (is this true?).  What do you do if
> you want to use other papers?  I'm through with scanner-based profiling, no
> more!  I don't want to write my own curves.  I want plug-and-play.  (Well,
> at least plug, spend a couplahours, and then play.)
> 
> 4.  CFS-
> I have been using nomocarts CIS for over a year, with no problems.  Anyone
> use MIS' CFS?  Reasons not to?
> 
> This is a great list.  TIA,
> 
> David Corwin