Digital BW, The Print

Hello David,

>I just acquired an Epson 2200 and tried black only printing using
>the Photo black ink and Epson Premium glossy paper. Although the 
>sharpness and tonal gradations are excellent, the color of the
>print is very warm -- objectionably so for my taste. I am about 
>to try the matte black and a matte paper such as EAM. I am a 
>long time user of Piezo inks and get very satisfactory results 
>from my Epson 1160 with piezotone inks. Is there some way of 
>getting neutral B&W prints from the 2200 without investing in 
>something like Imageprint 5?

You may find the Matte Black to be even warmer than the Photo Black. 
The problem with all these pigment inks is that the pure carbon is
warm brown, not black.  So black dyes of various sorts are added to
get real black.  But the dyes degrade or "burn off" after some time
which is what causes the warming/color shifting everyone complains
about.  So the way to get inks that won't shift is to add little or no
dye in the first place, which I think is what the Matte Black is, pure
carbon pigment.  

So, if you stick with gray scale inks you either get warm prints that
don't shift, or neutral prints that eventually get warm to some
degree.  Depending on the particular ink formula, some inks warm
evenly and some unevenly, depending on the amount of colorants in the
different positions.  Or else you use pure carbon and mix in some cyan
and magenta to cool it off, which is what I think the RIPs do on the
2200.  

I saw one of Daniel's prints from a 2100 using Power RIP.  It looks
fairly neutral, and with a loupe I can see the light C and M dots
mixed in with the black and gray.  It looks very nice, but then he
sent the same image printed BO2 (BO2 means using both the Black and
Gray inks Only, as Power RIP can do).  The BO2 image had, to my eyes,
much better shadow detail and 3D depth.  Overall a much nicer looking
print, really gorgeous - only real warm. 

What is best at this point is still up for grabs.  Isn't Jon Cone
working on PzTone carts for the 2200?  Maybe that will be the best
thing.

Regards,
Clayton


Info on black and white digital printing at    
http://www.cjcom.net/digiprnarts.htm