Digital BW, The Print

On Friday, January 31, 2003, at 08:54  PM, jsinger986 
<jsinger986@...> wrote:

> I just got back a Epson 9600 13"x13" b&w print of a Nikon 8000 scanned 
> negative and all I can say is I am thoroughly unimpressed.
> So, is this what can be expected or did I get a VERY bad print?

Jeff,

I own and use a 7600, but I think my comments will apply nonetheless.

I cannot see what you can see, but from your post it sounds like you 
got a bad print.

You said it was printed with UltraChrome ink with Photo Black? Was it 
printed on a matte paper or a gloss/semigloss/luster paper? Was it a 
color print or a BW print (given this group, I'm guessing BW).

It sounds like the operator who produced your print has no idea how to 
do proper paper tuning or sound color management. Or, because of the 
'dots' and the 'sepia brown tone' it is possible that the printer 
operator used the standard Epson driver and set it to "Black Only" 
printing, which would produce exactly the kind of print you describe.

I can tell you first hand it is possible to get EXCEPTIONAL results 
from the 7600/9600 using UltraChrome ink. I use Matte Black ink and 
print to fine art matte media, and I'm quite happy. But it doesn't come 
for free, with the Epson printer driver, right out of the box. It took 
me the better part of a month and a half of really working with the 
printer, the driver, my media selections, struggling with issues with 
the present version of alternate printing software (ImagePrint RIP on 
OS X), several color management profiling gyrations, lots of test 
prints and comparisons, but in the end it was effort well spent, and 
the results are excellent by any measure. Printing with ImagePrint to 
the 7600/9600 w/UltraChrome ink affords the use of their "Grayscale" 
profiles, which yield incredibly neutral grayscale prints, and this RIP 
also affords much better ink control than the standard Epson printer 
driver, such that color management for color prints is MUCH more well 
behaved.

Sounds like you should have someone as picky as myself do your printing 
work for you... and no, that's not a shameless pitch for work, it's 
just that getting good results from these machines takes some extra 
care and effort.

/eddie