Digital BW, The Print

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@y..., David Corwin 
<davidcorwin@h...> wrote:
> 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!)
> 

When I first started printing B&W with an inkjet printer I was blown 
away by what could be done with the MIS quadset. Compared to printing 
with Epson OEM dyes, this was B&W heaven. But not quite.

Some prints looked great, but others were always too grainy. Getting 
out the loupe, there was always an overlap of colors (grays if you 
will), mixing a darker tone with a course dot dither with a lighter 
tone.

The logical solution was to work in PhotoShop with quadtone settings, 
convert each color to CMYK and send it to the printer. WRONG!

Epson drivers work in RGB, then convert to CMYK on the fly. CMYK 
files sent to the driver are converted to RGB then converted to CMYK.
Some people say that they can use curves to get around this all the 
time. I don't see how. I've downloaded every curve set that I could 
get hold of.

I think that if you tweak enough, you can get a curve that will get 
you there, but you are working blind. You can't see onscreen what you 
get from the printer. I think that the next image or paper will put 
you back to square one.

It was suggested that I needed the PostScript driver to directly 
print CMYK files. I bought the Epson ColorStylist RIP, set out to 
learn it, only to find that this is not a true RIP and once again, 
the Epson driver does its conversion thing.

When faced with the idea of buying a true RIP for my little desktop, 
I decided to take a gamble on the Cone Piezo system. I didn't believe 
half of what they said but it seemed the only way.

I've never looked back. No problems with deep blacks, no problems 
with microbanding (like I had with MIS oddly enough), after getting a 
CIS, no problems with clogs--ever.

I spend all of my time working the print, knowing what it will print 
to.

My hat I off to all of you that find great success with quad and hex 
inks and the Epson driver. I never could, and it wasn't for lack of 
trying.