Digital BW, The Print

----- Original Message -----
From: <thusband@...>
To: <DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Saturday, February 15, 2003 4:38 AM
Subject: [Digital BW] Re: Banding in BO Prints


> .........This is very consistent and I'm pretty well convinced
>  it's the driver's way of arranging the dot pattern to get that
> zone.
>  I've never been able to get rid of it.  Only time it's visible
> without
>  a loupe is if there is a large even toned area exactly on that zone.
>
>  Regards,
>  Clayton

Clayton,

In time it will get worse I'm afraid. Now you may see dot pattern
inabilities, it could change to plain nozzle wear artifacts. There's
something to be said for "less nozzles - less problems" but dot weaving of
more nozzles delivers more compensation for the flaws in few of them. A
black dot is also very "yes or no" so if there is just a small difference in
nozzle capacity it will show. The messages I wrote before are based on that
suspicion. Some experience with a friend's BO printing on a 1270 (Epson dye)
a year ago, happy in the beginning, 4 times visit of an Epson serviceman
afterwards, 2 replacements and he now does B&W with the Epson CcMmYK inks
and a good ICC profile. That isn't good B&W printing in many aspects but the
printing consistency in time is far better than his BO before.

I guess in B&W printing the total number of nozzles could be lower. There
have been messages by Quad users that 3 grey inks could be the optimal
number. The Epson 10000 can print a very nice BO print with the special 8
passes setting. But the 10000 head has the highest nozzle number of all the
Epson printers. You could fill up the cart of an Epson CMYK printer with
black only in the 4 positions and try that. But that will still show the
dots. And when there is a dot pattern inability it will show up in the 4
heads at the same tone. By shifting the density of the inks that flaw is
compensated, so quads have sense.

With further development in resolution and droplet size it is imaginable
that BO printing is possible. The CcMm ink solution is seen as temporary
too. It wouldn't surprise me however if we first get printers that are
CMYKk(k) or alike. The density of black ink being the reason to add greys.
The total ink limitation and fade properties the reason to drop c and m.
More grey inks help in reducing the ink amount printed too. There's a small
toll payed for dropping c and m, the gamut reduces slightly as smaller dots
of CM do not give the nicer subtractive colour mixing of larger dots of cm.
Time to add OGB inks then. PMA 2008 was mentioned before, I think it will be
earlier.

Ernst