Digital BW, The Print

I just got my brand-new Epson 1280 and MIS-VM inkset yesterday, and I'm 
quite disappointed with the results.

I, at risk, decided to just load the MIS carts without loading the epson 
carts first.  Did a head alignment and nozzle check.  Printed a step wedge 
using the instructions given on the MIS website (using the Roark NC curve 
for the 1280) on EAM.  The step-wedge looked good both compared to onscreen 
and with a Q-13 test target.

So far, so good.

I printed a test image (on EAM) which I had previously printed with my 
Epson 890 using the Lyson Quad-black inkset (on HWM).  No comparison at all 
-- the Lyson print is clearly better.  The problems with the MIS one that I 
see are:
- I can see dots in the darker tones a couple of steps up from black 
(around 13 on the Q-13) even without a loupe.  Going back to the 
step-wedge, you can see the dots there too.
- the Lyson print is sharper
- the lyson print seems to be more continuous-tone.  When compared to the 
Lyson, the MIS print seems to be posterized.  That is, if you examine one 
particular area, there seems to be a larger number of tonal steps going 
from dark to light on the Lyson print than the MIS print.
- on the plus side, the MIS print seems to be more neutral than the Lyson one

I could just buy the Lyson inkset for the 1280, but I'd like to have an 
archival print.  Also, my impression from reading here was that the MIS 
results would be superior to the Lyson results.

Anyone have any suggestions for what I'm doing wrong?


Thanks,
Keith Douglas





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Keith Douglas, L432F, x57590