Digital BW, The Print

Bill:

> Mitch, having seen some of your work (if I've got the name right --
> when you parachuted into our briefly-lived D.C. Piezo group?), I'm
> really most interested in how you find color and BW prints from your
> 7600

Earlier this week, I posted my initial experience on the Epson9000 list 
as follows:

> Subject: Results from new 7600
>
> Having received my 7600 on Monday, I started with Photo Black and 
> Epson Premium Semi-Matte paper hoping for "satisfying blacks." Also I 
> purchased ImagePrint 5 and downloaded the Atkinson profiles. Here's my 
> experience so far:
>
>
> Color
> -------
> I prefer the results with the Atkinson profile to the ImagePrint, and 
> so do other people who have seen the two sets of prints. The results 
> form the Atkinson and ImagePrint profiles are very close, but the 
> ImagePrint profiles produce more open shadows and the darker shadow 
> areas of the Atkinson profile look better in the prints. I tried both 
> the 1440 and 2880 Atkinson profiles and could not find any difference 
> between the two, looking either with the naked eye or through a 10x 
> loupe, so my advice is to conserve ink and print at 1440.
>
> Color prints on the Semi-Matte paper look acceptable, although I still 
> prefer the matte papers, EAM and Photo Rag, that I previously used on 
> the 1290.
>
>
> B&W
> -------
> I made B&W prints using only ImagePrint and compared them to prints 
> made with Piezography using an 1160 on EAM and Photo Rag.
>
> The look of the prints on Semi-Matte are, to put it simply, yucky; and 
> there is some bronzing depending on the angle at which the prints are 
> being viewed.
>
> The Piezography prints look much better mainly because the of the 
> matte papers which gives better contrast and more luminous look . 
> Again, the ImagePrint prints show a little more shadow detail than the 
> Piezography prints, but I don't know whether this is because of the 
> difference in the matte versus glossy-type paper or because of the 
> ImagePrint profile; perhaps it's a combination of the two. But the 
> lesser shadow detail (darker shadows) looks better.
>
>
> Conclusions
> ----------------
> Photo Black and the Semi-Matte paper with the Atkinson profile is a 
> perfectly acceptable solution for color prints, and is indeed very 
> close in visual quality and gamut to prints using 1290 (dye) inks on 
> matte paper. I think the difference in the "semi-gloss" of the 
> Semi-Matte paper and the matte papers would not show in prints framed 
> under glass. If I were printing only color I would have no need for 
> ImagePrint.
>
> For B&W prints the Semi-Matte paper is unacceptable.
>
> I think that after completing some twenty-five prints for an 
> exhibition on the Semi-Matte paper (mainly at 16x24 and some at 24x36 
> inch size), I'll switch to a matte paper.
>
>
> Questions:
> --------------
> 1. My matte paper experience is only with Photo Rag, which I like a 
> lot, but an Epson paper is more easily available in Bangkok. I 
> understand Epson Velvet Fine Art produces a good gamut. Any 
> suggestions for matte paper to use?
>
> 2. I assume that I'll have to switch to Photo Black, or is there some 
> Photo Black/matte paper combination that works well? [I wish Epson had 
> included 8 ink cartridges which allow keeping Photo Black and Matte 
> Black ink in the printer all the time...and a ninth cartridge for 
> spraying a polyurethane coating :-) ]
>
> 3. I am still within my 30-day trial period for ImagePrint. I assume I 
> will need it for B&W, or do you think I can get good B&W results with 
> the Atkinson profiles? I gather this is what Mark Tucker is doing, 
> with some tweaking of the profiles, but I don't have a "tweaker."
>
> --Mitch/Bangkok

Since then I just started using the Mac OSX version of ImagePrint, and 
I will be posting some more conclusions on the Epson9000 list, which 
are likely to be much more favorable to IP5. Would you like me to 
cross-post here, or can you follow this on Epson9000?

--Mitch/Bangkok



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