Digital BW, The Print

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, Bruce Kinch
<pvx@r...> wrote:

snip
> That is basically what the Piezo driver does, with 4 shades. With Y 
> for the highlights, M down to 50%, the only remaining "dots" are in 
> the lower values. With modern, six/seven ink printers, being 
> constrained to 4 ink shades seems limiting.
Adding more inks can create more problems than it solves. I've made
workflows for Piezo, MIS, and Lyson quad sets, MIS VM's, and MIS hextones.
Of all of them the hextones were the most difficult. Much more
intricate and steeper curves are required, I saw no image quality
improvement.
However I had no access to a 6 channel driver, I think john is working
on this very thing with hexes and I don't envy him, 2 more transitions
to get right.
I still think dots are a workflow problem. I'm still very happy with a
good old "dotty" 4 ink 3000. In many ways it's the ideal quadtone printer.

> Real hextone inks would seem to make sense as the technology evolves. 
> The MIS FS "E" is really the only option there.
Of their inks, the set I have the least confidence in. After we
finished a workflow, Steve Meyer printed with them for a bit with a
7000. He could tell you more about actual print quality and longevity
than I. I know he gave up on them fairly soon.
I think Lyson has a hex set, but after several months trying to like
the hue of their quad sets, I moved away from them when the Piezo inks
came out.
But they have more users out there than this list would indicate.
Tyler