Digital BW, The Print

Keith: at the risk of insulting your intelligence, are you sure you're
converting the file to RGB before you apply the curve? And, that the
printer is set to color? Your prints sound like bad Black Only prints.
I've used MIS VM inks and Paul's workflow with my 1280 and my prints
were first rate from the start. 

If so, Jerry Olson's suggestion about posting ALL your settings would
be the next step. 

Bob Michaels

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, Keith Douglas
<kdouglas@q...> wrote:
> 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
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ------------------------------------------------
> Keith Douglas, L432F, x57590