Digital BW, The Print

Jim,

>... I e-mailed you about the sepia toned inks but now I think I am
>going to hold out until these are available.

I've temporarily shelved my vm-s upgrade project also. It may be that the
new VM 4.3 is warm enough to satisfy all of my light-sepia-tone needs.

Also, I like the idea of using a pure carbon ink.  That is what the warm end
of the vm 4.3 inkset is.  It's a much more light-fast than the sepia end of
the vm-s inkset, which contains a lot of yellow and magenta pigment.  I
considered beefing up the warm end of the 4.3 inkset with some color pigs,
but then the thought of "polluting" the carbon with metamerism-causing
yellow pigments (and somewhat less light-fast magenta pigs) caused me to
back off from that idea.

I think "carbon pigments on archival paper" has the best chance of
persuading the skeptics that our prints will last.  So, while one could
describe the warm tone as "platinum-like" or "old-photo, albumen-like,"  I
think we ought to boast about what it really is -- natural, warm, un-altered
carbon.

> Any idea when they might be hitting the market?

MIS wants to be sure the inks do well in fade testing.  The components do,
but it has not been tested as a completed product.  My fade test ends March
5.  MIS has a brighter Xenon light that will probably reach a point where
the inks can be evaluated before that time.  (MIS does other tests, but they
are not what takes the time.)  So, I expect next week MIS will make its
decision on marketing the mix.

Paul
http://www.PaulRoark.com
____________________________________________


-----Original Message-----
From: Paul Roark [mailto:paul.roark@...]
Sent: Thursday, February 27, 2003 10:21 AM
To: DigitalB&WPrint
Subject: Re: [Digital BW] Sundance Septone v. UC VM 4.3

Jeff,

>I am considering the switch from your MIS VM hex set to the new
>UC VM 4.3 when it is available.

>Do you have any suggestions to make this as smooth as
>possible?

>I assume I should replace the cartridges on my CIS.

Yes, I would not mix the inks in the cfs cartridges.

> I read something about higher load pigments. Will
>this be a problem in my 1280?

I don't think it'll be a significant problem.  The midtone grays are diluted
enough that they are no longer high load.

The new matte black, like the Museum black, to me prints a little rougher in
my 1160.  However, the newer printers are smoother there than my 1160.  (In
fact, other 1160s are smoother since my daughter let a hair band with a
metal piece run through the 1160 -- crunch.)

>Will I be able to use my existing curves (I use yours and Tyler's)
>for my 1280 running on a Mac?

Yes.  The system was matched to the old vm system.  The existing 1160 curves
were what I used to be sure the final system worked.

What I've found is that the more recent and better-written curves also
largely take care of the possible black ink roughness.  (Which may be a
non-issue with a good printer.  Also, MIS says the better filtering it does
on production runs helps.)  If the light gray ink curve is pulled up at
about 75% before sinking quickly again to turn on the black ink, that ink
can be restricted to the very darkest areas, where the transition is in such
a dark area that it can't be seen at all.  That is, with good curves there
doesn't seem to be a rough transition.  The old 1160 curves were about the
first I wrote, and they don't do this.

>I hope to do this smoothly with the least amount of down
>time/tweaking ...

I think it is interchangeable, with the caveat that the tones are slightly
different -- much better, in my view.  The "nc" is now a selenium-neutral on
EEM.

Paul
http://www.PaulRoark.com
_________________________________________

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "Paul
Roark" <paul.roark@v...> wrote:
> Well, after Gregory's posting information and photos of the new
Sundance
> Septone inkset at
>
> http://www.inkjetgoodies.com/sundance_septone.htm
>
> I just could not resist posting some comparison images of my
UC VM 4.3
> inkset for comparison.  See
>
> http://home1.gte.net/res0a2zt/V-tone.html
> Paul
> http://www.PaulRoark.com